Ajit gets finance, BJP brings NCP camp on par with Shinde’s Sena

Twelve days after the nine NCP ministers took oath, the BJP on Friday managed to hammer out a power-sharing deal with its alliance partners. It ensured that deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar got finance portfolio which it had promised to him and at the same time assured chief minister Eknath Shinde and his MLAs that all major decisions related to the finance department would be monitored by the CM and his another deputy Devendra Fadnavis.

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However, with Friday’s developments, the BJP has sent a message to its ally Shinde that it no longer depends on his party to remain in power since it brought the Ajit Pawar faction on par with Shiv Sena in the power equations within the government.

NCP minister Dilip Walse Patil - who was the home minister when Shinde pulled down the MVA government - will now head the cooperation department while Chhagan Bhujbal will handle the food and civil supplies department. Dhananjay Munde will head the agriculture department and the only woman minister in the cabinet, Aditi Tatkare, will be in-charge of the women and child welfare department. The other ministers are Hasan Mushrif (medical education), Dharmarao Atram (food and drugs administration), Sanjay Bansode (sports and youth welfare), and Anil Patil (relief and rehabilitation).

Following the reshuffle, the BJP now has important departments such as home, revenue, water resources (irrigation), energy, housing, public works, and tribal development. Shinde-led Sena, on the other hand, keeps urban development, social justice, public health, industries, and school education departments.

“If one goes by the distribution of portfolios, the BJP has more strategic or politically important departments among the three parties while Shiv Sena and NCP have almost an equal number of such portfolios with them. Thus, the BJP brought Ajit Pawar-led NCP on par with Shinde’s Shiv Sena,” a BJP minister, who did not wish to be named, said.

He added, “Of course, the chief minister is the most powerful person in a government. However, in this case, Shinde may not be able to call the shots due to his limited number of MLAs with him. The BJP is the big brother in terms of numbers in the assembly and with Ajit Pawar’s camp on its side, Shinde is not exactly in a position to assert his authority.”

It was a loss of face for Shinde and his MLAs as exactly a year ago, the alleged high-handedness of Ajit Pawar, who was also the finance minister in the MVA regime, was cited by them as one of the reasons for splitting Shiv Sena and joining hands with the BJP. They had then claimed that they were not getting enough funds from the government for their constituencies compared to their NCP counterparts. But despite resistance from Shinde and his MLAs, Ajit Pawar succeeded in getting the finance and planning departments as promised to him by the BJP when he decided to join the ruling alliance, sources said.

“One has to make some adjustments in an alliance. I am the chief minister. I will ensure that everybody gets justice. All our MLAs are matured politicians,” Shinde said when asked about the objections raised by his MLAs over allocating the finance department to Ajit Pawar.

Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, according to sources, too assured Shiv Sena MLAs that he and the CM would monitor the allocation of funds to all the departments.

“Shiv Sena was assured that Ajit Pawar would not have a free hand to do what he did during the MVA rule. Decisions related to funds allocation would have to be taken in consultation with Shinde and Fadnavis to ensure that Sena MLAs would not have any grievances,” a senior BJP leader said. “It was only after this assurance that Shinde and his MLAs accepted Ajit Pawar as the finance minister.”

School education minister and Shiv Sena MLA Deepak Kesarkar said all the decisions would have to be approved by the chief minister and thus they were not worried. “I share a good rapport with Ajit dada and he had told me that the decision taken by him would have to be approved by the chief minister. Now, we have a CM who can take decisions.”

Seconding his opinion, state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said the decisions taken by Ajit Pawar would have to be approved by Shinde and Fadnavis. “Ajit dada will present the budget only after it is approved by Eknath ji and Fadnavis ji.”

Though the reshuffle was effected by Shinde, it was clear that Fadnavis worked it out following several rounds of meetings with the CM and Ajit Pawar in the last few days.

The cooperation department, which the BJP leadership gave up reluctantly, will help Ajit Pawar keep his flock together and ensure that most of the NCP legislators and prominent leaders do not side with his uncle, Sharad Pawar. BJP’s Atul Save, who had been handling the portfolio until now, will head the housing and OBC departments in his next assignment.

Two controversial Shiv Sena ministers - Abdul Sattar and Sanjay Rathod – too had to give up the agriculture and food and drug administration portfolios to NCP’s Munde and Atram respectively. Sattar has been given the agricultural marketing and minority affairs departments while Rathod will head the soil and water conservation department.

BJP heavyweight from Mumbai, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, lost his women and child development department to NCP’s Tatkare and tourism to party colleague Girish Mahajan who had to concede his medical education to NCP’s Mushrif.

Sharad Pawar-led NCP taunted the chief minister saying they would now have to refer all the files of their MLAs to the new finance minister. “Portfolio allocation @AjitPawarSpeaks dada got what he wanted but CM @mieknathshinde lost the high moral ground as he had blamed dada for not allocating resources to Sena MLAs in the previous MVA Govt & hence the coup. Now will the CM refer all Sena MLAs files back to dada?,” Mahesh Tapase, NCP’s chief spokesperson, tweeted.

Senior Pawar’s former ally Bhujbal is confident that Ajit dada would not do any discrimination against anyone. “After becoming a minister, one does not remain related to a specific section. He or she becomes the minister of all the people in the state and even of all political parties.”

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Before the portfolios were announced, Ajit Pawar held a meeting with additional chief secretary (finance) Nitin Kareer on Friday. Later, he also met speaker Rahul Narwekar at the legislature building.

“The powers for allocation of portfolios are with chief minister Ekanth Shinde. We have joined his cabinet and are ready to take up whatever responsibility is being given by him,” he said.

The cabinet now has a strength of 29 ministers, including the chief minister and his two deputies. However, there is no word from the ruling alliance as to when the next expansion of the cabinet will be taken up.