An NCP spokesperson said Shinde must have tried to gauge the mood of his party colleagues by floating the issue of remaining out of power. (Express photo by Arul Horizon)
Even as the suspense over who will be the next chief minister of Maharashtra continues more than a week after the declaration of the results of the Assembly polls, it has now emerged that the BJP and the NCP want Eknath Shinde to become the Leader of Opposition if he is not keen to take the deputy chief minister’s post. Shinde himself has indicated that he wants to stay out of power. The two Mahayuti partners feel if they have the two top posts, it will ensure smooth functioning for the government and the rival Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will be relegated to a corner.
“I was with Eknath Shinde two days ago. Other leaders and MLAs were also with us. At that moment, Eknath Shinde told us that he would work by remaining out of power. However, we insisted that he should not remain out of power. He should work while being part of the government,” newly elected MLA Bharat Gogawale, known for his proximity to Shinde, told reporters Sunday.
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An NCP spokesperson said Shinde must have tried to gauge the mood of his party colleagues by floating the issue of remaining out of power. “This is because all Mahayuti allies are discussing the possibility of Shinde taking up the Leader of Opposition’s post if he is resisting becoming the deputy chief minister… The strategy is that if Shinde becomes the Leader of Opposition, the opposition MVA will have no voice and the government will avoid facing daily criticisms… Besides, the Leader of Opposition post is the number two post after that of the chief minister,” the spokesperson said.
“The BJP wants him to be part of the government. However, he is not ready to play second fiddle to Devendra Fadnavis as it will mean demotion for him,” the spokesperson added.
No party in the MVA has the required number to claim the Leader of Opposition’s post in the Assembly. However, the Congress said the MVA as a whole could claim the Leader of Opposition’s post.
“A party needs at least 29 MLAs to get the Leader of Opposition’s post. We had a pre-poll alliance and, therefore, the MVA can lay claim to the post. We will be staking claim for the post,” said Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe.
The Congress dismissed the possibility of Shinde taking up the post. “They might be discussing the possibility. But it is illogical to think that Shinde will become the Leader of Opposition,” Londhe said.
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Another Sena MLA Gulabrao Patil said since the decision regarding the chief minister’s post was being delayed, Shinde had asked them to interact with the people in their respective constituencies. “Eknath Shinde is our leader. Therefore, whatever instructions he gives us, we follow those instructions. Shinde has worked for the common man. And that is why people want him back as the chief minister. However, Shinde himself has clarified that whatever decision Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah take, he will support them,” Patil said.
Former MNS MLA Raju Patil said, “Whatever political drama is being played out in Maharashtra is a bid to divert attention from the EVM controversy. The chief minister had a fever and he went to Dare village… Finally, he will do what the BJP tells him to do.”
Sources said that besides the chief ministerial post, the Shinde-led Sena is also insisting on the home portfolio, which the BJP is strongly opposing.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
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