A day after cabinet expansion, disgruntled voices surface in Mahayuti

NAGPUR: A day after the Mahayuti government expanded its cabinet by inducting 39 ministers and ministers of state, senior leaders from the three ruling parties who were excluded have openly expressed their discontent. The NCP’s Chhagan Bhujbal, the BJP’s Sudhir Mungantiwar and Sanjay Kute, the Shiv Sena’s Vijay Shivtare and Tanaji Sawant, and several others have either have spoken openly against the party leadership or skipped the first day of the winter session, which began on Monday.

Chhagan Bhujbal’s exclusion from the cabinet led to a violent reaction from his supporters in Nashik, who staged rasta rokos, shaved their heads and torched vehicles. Sudhir Mungantiwar met his political mentor, union minister Nitin Gadkari to complain, and later took a dig at the BJP leadership. While Sena MLA Narendra Bhondekar resigned from his post of deputy leader of the party, the BJP’s Kute wrote a letter to his supporters, asking them not to react to his being denied a cabinet berth.

Mungantiwar, a seven-term MLA from Chandrapur and former finance minister, opted to skip both the oath-taking ceremony and the first day of the assembly winter session. “I was told by the party leadership that my name was recommended for a cabinet position but received no communication,” he said.

The politician was reportedly excluded because his supporter, Brijbhushan Pazare, fielded his nomination against BJP candidate Kishore Jorgewar, after which Mungantiwar chose not to campaign for Jorgewar. However, Mungantiwar dismissed this, saying another senior leader, Ganesh Naik, whose son rebelled against the party, had been made a minister. “My mentor, Nitin Gadkari, has advised me to have faith and patience,” he said.

CM Devendra Fadnavis, when questioned, said that the BJP central leadership might have thought of a different role for Mungantiwar. “I have spoken to Sudhirbhau in detail,” he said.

Other senior leaders like Deepak Kesarkar, Abdul Sattar, Tanaji Samant and Narendra Bondekar (Shiv Sena), Dilip Walse-Patil (NCP) and Krishna Khopde (BJP) also skipped the first day of the winter session. While supporters of Bondekar and Khopde resigned in protest, Bhondekar even went on to lambast the Mahayuti for its choice of ministers, saying that “tainted MLAs” were taking oath. He tendered his resignation from all Sena party posts.

Others who expressed their anger were Gopichand Padalkar, the BJP MLA from Jat, and a host of North Indian and Gujarati-speaking BJP leaders from Mumbai—the latter were upset about being excluded, given that local body elections are expected to be held soon. Magathane’s Sena MLA Prakash Surve said he would have taken the opportunity “very seriously” if granted it. “But there were some influential MLAs, sons of influential people, who were preferred,” he said. “I come from a poor family.”

Deepak Kesarkar and former minister Tanaji Sawant also stayed away from the oath-taking ceremony. Kesarkar told the media he had no idea why his name was dropped despite his “good work” in the past two-and-a-half years. Sawant, despite being in Nagpur, left for Pune on Sunday. “I will speak at the appropriate time and say everything,” he said.

Vijay Shivtare was reportedly in the list of ministers from the Shiv Sena but was dropped on the insistence of his arch-rival from Pune, NCP chief Ajit Pawar. “I will not accept a ministerial berth after two-and-a-half years even if I am offered one,” he declared.