Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis are to meet BJP top brass in Delhi tomorrow
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will meet with BJP top brass in Delhi tomorrow.
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By Ritvick Arun Bhalekar: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will fly to Delhi on Friday to meet the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) top leadership.
The duo is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and BJP national president JP Nadda.
Both Shinde and Fadnavis will leave Delhi on Saturday and will be back in Pune. Shinde will then perform Ashadi Ekadashi Pooja at 4 am in Pandharpur.
Earlier today, Eknath Shinde officially took charge as Maharashtra Chief Minister at the state secretariat Mantralaya, a week after he was administered the oath of office along with Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.
On June 20, he began a revolt against Sena supremo and then-chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray, and set in motion a chain of events that culminated with Thackeray stepping down from the top post on June 29.
A day later, Eknath Shinde took over as CM, with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy. The development, however, came as a surprise, as it was widely expected that Fadnavis, a former CM, would succeed Thackeray, with the rebel Sena leader taking over the deputy’s chair.
Meanwhile, according to reports, the new government is likely to have 45 ministers, of which 25 will be from the BJP and 13 from the Shinde-led Sena faction. The remaining ministers will be independent MLAs.
CM Shinde will leave for Pune on Saturday evening and proceed to the temple town of Pandharpur for taking part in the ‘Ashadi Ekadashi’ maha puja early Sunday morning. Pandharpur in Solapur district houses a famous temple dedicated to Lord Vitthal and Goddess Rukmini.
It has been a long-standing tradition in Maharashtra for the Chief Minister of the day and his spouse to attend the early morning prayers at the temple on ‘Ashadi Ekadashi’, a prominent Hindu festival.
Shinde’s Delhi visit comes also ahead of the July 11 hearing in the Supreme Court on a petition seeking the disqualification of 15 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs.
Rebellion by a section of Sena MLAs, led by Shinde, resulted in the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government last month.
He noted, “the entire country is with Uddhav, there were tears in the eyes of women when he left his official bungalow and these traitors (in an apparent reference to Eknath Shinde faction) will be swept away in these tears”. “Political careers of these leaders will become history,” he added.
BJP JP Nadda on Saturday held a meeting with Shinde and Fadnavis on cabinet expansion and the formula for dividing cabinet berths between BJP and Shiv Sena. The meeting which lasted about 40 minutes took place at the residence of Nadda in the national capital. The BJP has in initial talks offered 11 ministerial posts to the Shinde faction and has suggested that 29 ministers would be from the party.
Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde faction is in favor of keeping the Home Department with the Chief Minister. However, no official information has been given on this matter yet. With the buzz of the Maharashtra cabinet being expanded in two phases doing rounds, the meeting is significant amid the likelihood of the expansion taking place before the presidential election on July 18.
Shinde took oath as Chief Minister and Fadnavis as Deputy Chief Minister of the new government on June 30 after Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray resigned following a revolt in his party. Shinde won the floor test in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on the last day of the two-day special session of the House on July 4. In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it.
