After losing CM seat, Eknath Shinde now targets cash-rich departments in one of India’s wealthiest states

Despite reduced bargaining strength, the Shiv Sena will try to extract the most it can from a resurgent BJP, a task that is not going to be easy

What a politician loses in power, he tries to target consolation prizes. A sulking and chastened Eknath Shinde, the former chief minister of Maharashtra, who represents pretty much the new Shiv Sena, is looking for plum departments following his downgrade as deputy chief minister.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis with deputy CMs Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar. (ANI file)

To make matters difficult, the BJP, which is sitting pretty with 132 assembly seats, is playing from a position of strength. While Shinde's request for the key home portfolio has already been turned down, the former CM is keen to get one or more of the three cash-rich departments - irrigation, PWD and revenue.

Mumbai-based political analyst Rajan Khanna says,"There is certainly going to be some give and take, but Shinde’s position is not too strong, particularly given the fact that Ajit Pawar’s NCP is not making too many demands; Pawar has too many anti-corruption files in the hands of a BJP that has the numbers and can dictate terms.”

Insiders say that Eknath Shinde will be happy to get the Shiv Sena’s hands on some key infrastructure and economic departments as they make Maharashtra India's second most industrialised state, contributing 20% of national industrial output.

For water-rich Maharashtra, irrigation projects constitute an important source of economic power and patronage. The number of ongoing projects include the Adhala Medium Irrigation Project, the Chikotra Irrigation Project in Kolhapur, the Ashti Lift Irrigation Project, the Dhaligaon, Gosikhurd and Jayakwadi Dam projects, all of which are important schemes in various stages of competition.

Now consider the following. The Maharashtra budget for 2023-24 also includes:

• ₹3,545 crore for the Water Supply and Sanitation Department

• ₹20,000 crore for the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM)

• 39 irrigation projects to be completed

Not for nothing has the ₹35,000 crore Maharashtra irrigation scam of 1999-2000, involving a leading light of the Maharashtra government, Ajit Pawar, been in the national headlines for over two decades.

The state’s public works department (PWD) department, another one on Shinde’s wish list, is a favourite milching cow of politicians.

Maharashtra’s state's budget for 2023-24 included a total expenditure of ₹6,02,008 crore. The fiscal deficit for 2023-24 was estimated to be ₹95,501 crore, which is 2.46% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

In June this year, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar alleged that tenders for 146 works floated by the newly formed Maharashtra State Infrastructure Development Corporation (MSIDC) — under the PWD — were filed for a 20-25% higher amount for ₹6,000-crore commission.

Since the same government, with a different configuration is coming back, it would be ambitious to expect any serious investigation into the alleged scam.

Of the three, the revenue department’s estimated revenue expenditure for the 2023-2024 financial year (FY) is ₹4,65,645 crore, a 3% increase from the revised estimate for the 2022-2023 FY.

Revenue expenditure is the money spent on the government's day-to-day needs, such as salaries, pensions, interest, grants, and constitute an important leveraging factor in a state, where the number of workers during FY 2024 is estimated at over 2 million, in addition to government employees.

India's richest municipal body BMC on Shinde's radar

Also on Shinde’s radar is the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC), India’s richest municipal body. In ten years, the Corporation allocated ₹2.19 lakh crore for the city, higher than the 10-year budget of some Indian states.

The BMC Annual Budget of ₹52,619.07 for the year 2023-2024 was the first instance that the budget estimate for the BMC to cross ₹50,000 crores in its history.

Analyst Khanna points out that in the BMC elections, which are due either this year or early next year, "60-65% constituencies are Marathi dominated,” and that Shinde is certainly going to be a factor there.

In the run-up to the Maharashtra assembly elections, Eknath Shinde, then the CM, had boasted that infrastructure projects worth ₹8 lakh crore are currently under various stages of implementation in the state, the highest in the country. He probably did not visualize then that he would be eyeing some of them for the good of the Shiv Sena in a few months.