Two days ahead of the oath ceremony of the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra, the ruling alliance is yet to announce the name of the incumbent. Sources, though, say a formula has been arrived at for the division of ministerial berths.
Sources said power sharing will be based on a 6-1 formula — meaning one ministerial post will be given for every six MLAs a party has.
Under the formula, as expected, the BJP, which won a whopping 132 seats, will also have the maximum number of ministerial posts. Its two allies — Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party faction have also struck a profitable deal.
In numbers, it would translate to 20 to 22 ministerial posts for the BJP. Eknath Shinde’s party will have 12 spots and Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP can be given 9 to 10 ministerial posts.
The tussle though, is over the portfolios, especially the Home Ministry, which Devendra Fadnavis has been handling for years. The Eknath Shinde faction of Sena argues that that the portfolio should be compensation if they have to accept the post of Mr Fadnavis’s Deputy.
Ajit Pawar’s NCP, meanwhile, has demanded a share equal to that of the Shinde faction in the new government, sources said. NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal has declared their “strike rate” is better and so ministerial posts should be given accordingly.
The niggles, coupled with the knotty question of Chief Ministership, accounts for the massive delay in an announcement.
The big reveal is expected to be on Wednesday, when the BJP legislators meet to pick a chief of the legislature party.
As to who it would be – most are betting on Devendra Fadnavis, who met Eknath Shinde earlier today in what many said was to pour oil on troubled waters.
Mr Shinde, who had gone off to his village in Satara after declaring that he would not be an “obstacle” to the BJP decision, was admitted in a hospital today. His team called it a “routine check-up”.
Since the results were declared, leaders of all three parties in the ruling alliance have said they would sit down together and take a call on the issue. But 10 days on, there has been no announcement, drawing Opposition jibes.
Led by Mr Fadnavis, the BJP won the highest ever 132 seats for the party, while the Shiv Sena faction led by Mr Shinde bagged 57 seats. Ajit Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party won 41 seats, taking the ruling alliance Mahayuti score to a whopping 230 of the state’s 288 seats.
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