Day after Delhi visit, Shinde leaves for his village; Mahayuti meeting put on hold

Eknath Shinde held talks with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi along with Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.

A source in Sena said, “Within the limited number of Cabinet berths, it was important for the party to give opportunity to fresh faces as well. Hence a few ministers had to be dropped.” (PTI File)

A DAY after meeting the BJP top brass, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in Delhi, Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra’s caretaker Chief Minister Eknath Shinde left for his village in Satara on Friday, triggering speculation on his next move.

With Shinde away, a Mahayuti meeting that was expected to be held in Mumbai to discuss government formation had to be put on hold.

Sena spokesperson Uday Samant said Shinde was unwell, and denied that he was upset. “He is suffering from fever and cold…To say that he is upset will not be appropriate… We all feel that he should be a part of the government and guide us,” he said.

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Shinde, too, told reporters in his village of Daregaon that he had “throat pain” and would talk to them later.

Party leader Sanjay Shirsat, however, said that whenever Shinde has to “reflect on an important matter” or take a “big decision”, he visits his village. “As he has gone today, he may take some big decision by tomorrow. Considering the ongoing political developments in Maharashtra, and what he needs to do or not do, he will take some decision about that,” he said.

Party sources said Shinde was “unhappy” and his decision to go to his village may delay government formation. “Our leader is unhappy and so are we. Shinde did nothing wrong in his tenure. He led the election campaign and was therefore Mahayuti’s chief ministerial face. Logically, he should be appointed the chief minister,” said a party leader.

Earlier in the day, NCP (Sharad Pawar) MLA Jitendra Awhad met Shinde at his official residence. “It was not a political visit as I am not a part of his government. It was a personal visit and I don’t want to spell out the issues discussed in public,” Awhad said.

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“I met Shinde for two minutes. I asked him why he was suddenly heading to his native village… He told me that he was feeling tired and was going there to rest,” he said.

Although Shinde has maintained that he will not be a hurdle in government formation, his move has triggered fresh speculation.

“We cannot explain why he chose to visit his village in Satara. From what we understand, there are absolutely no glitches to government formation in Maharashtra. Even if there were some issues, Amitbhai (Amit Shah) would have addressed these during his meeting with Shinde,” said a senior BJP leader.

“Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah, along with the RSS, have given their approval to Devendra Fadnavis’s candidature for the CM’s post,” said highly placed sources in the BJP.

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BJP insiders also scotched speculation of the party going for a fresh candidate. “In a state like Maharashtra, with Shinde and Ajit Pawar as alliance partners, the BJP cannot go for experimentation and will have to go with a tried and tested leader who has administrative experience,” said sources.

Shinde’s party is also learnt to be putting pressure on the BJP leadership to allot the state home ministry and a deputy chief minister’s post to it.

Admitting that Shinde may have placed his concerns related to power sharing and portfolios before Shah, a senior BJP source said: “There is no question of conceding the home ministry to allies. Instead, the BJP would adequately compensate Shinde and Ajit Pawar with equally important portfolios. They will get their due.”

Indications are that the BJP has promised urban development and public works department to Shinde, and a finance portfolio to Ajit Pawar.

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Meanwhile, Shirsat told local news channel ABP Majha on Friday that they don’t want Shinde to go to the Centre. “We don’t want our party chief to accept any ministry in the Union Cabinet. He should not go to the Centre. However, he has to take the call on which post he should accept or not,” he said.

Asked if the party still expects Shinde to become the CM, he said: “Eknath Shinde has already made his position clear. He has said that the BJP leadership should take the call and there will be no hurdle from his side. We are not insisting on anything. We have not made any demand. Whatever decision is taken will be acceptable to us.”

He said that till Shah announces the name of the CM, nothing will be considered final. “We also want to know who will be the CM. Whoever becomes the CM will be acceptable to us. There is no confusion from our side,” he said.

Manoj Dattatrye More

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. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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