Fadnavis and the art of negotiations

As the BJP leadership made it clear to Shinde that it won’t go back on its promise made to Pawar, it was deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who had to play the role of negotiator in working out the power-sharing deal

It took a dozen days and at least half a dozen closed-door meetings for the ruling alliance to work out an arrangement to share portfolios following Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction’s dramatic entry into the government. According to insiders, Pawar had already been promised deputy chief ministership and finance portfolio and at least three key portfolios for his ministers. The portfolio allocation was delayed because chief minister Eknath Shinde objected to giving finance to Pawar since he and his MLAs had cited Pawar’s “high-handedness” as a reason for pulling down the MVA government.

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As the BJP leadership made it clear to Shinde that it won’t go back on its promise made to Pawar, it was deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who had to play the role of negotiator in working out the power-sharing deal. The deputy CM held a series of meetings with Shinde and Pawar. As talks were not bearing fruit, he even landed up at Shinde’s house in Thane on Thursday while on his way back to Mumbai after attending the BJP conclave in Bhiwandi. To pacify the Shinde camp, he came up with the idea of a mechanism under which allocation of funds by finance department would be monitored by the offices of the CM and Fadnavis.

The disputes are not over yet. The guardian ministership tangle is yet to be resolved. And not too far away is the question of distribution of tickets for 48 Lok Sabha seats. The Ajit faction is staking claim on 13 seats some of which even Shinde-led Sena wants. Knowing Ajit Pawar’s style of functioning, there are chances that he wouldn’t prefer CM and Fadnavis monitoring his department and undermine his authority. Looks like Fadnavis, the negotiator, will have more work to do in the coming days.

Congress’ dilemma

With the split in NCP, the Congress has now become the main opposition party in Maharashtra assembly. And so, the post of opposition leader in the assembly, which was earlier held by Ajit Pawar, will now go to Congress. Now Congress is deliberating whom to put in the place. It has options in Balasaheb Thorat, Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan, Vijay Wadettiwar and Sangram Thopte. While the top brass has an opportunity to pick a young leader, they are also wary of a upsetting a couple of seniors. At the same time, the party expects that the person occupying the post of opposition leader should take an aggressive stand against the government. As NCP is now weak following the split, Congress top brass sees an opportunity to recover its lost ground in Maharashtra. For that purpose, the party will have to show that they are fighting the government and the Opposition leader will play a key role in it. The party had however not reached a decision till Sunday evening. “The leadership is still doubtful about a couple of leaders. What if one is appointed as opposition leader and defects to BJP? It has happened earlier,” said a senior party leader. He was referring to Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil who was Opposition leader in assembly when he shifted loyalty to BJP before the 2019 elections.

No takers for office no 602

After Ajit Pawar took over as deputy chief minister, a search began for an office for him. The sixth floor of Mantralaya is regarded as the power corridor as the offices of chief minister, deputy chief minister and chief secretary are located there. Pawar wants an office on the same floor. The problem is, there is no large office for a second deputy chief minister who would need space for his staff as well as a conference room. There was one spacious office but Ajit did not want it. Not just Pawar, none of the ministers want Office number 602. They think it is jinxed as the ministers who have occupied it have suffered setbacks. After BJP came to power in 2014, then revenue minister Eknath Khadse got the office. He, however, had to resign midway following allegations of corruption. Next was agriculture minister Pandurang Phundkar who passed away while he was a minister. Next was BJP’s Anil Bonde, who lost the assembly election in 2019. None of the ministers in MVA government that came to power wanted the office. It was later converted into smaller offices for secretaries.Little wonder then that Ajit Pawar did not want it and instead chose two smaller bureaucrats’ offices, which have been merged to create a brand new office for him.