BERTH PANGS

The nature of the cabinet expansion and the initial policy decisions of the Shinde government indicate that coalition partner BJP has the upper hand in Maharashtra  

- DNYANESH JATHAR

CHIEF MINISTER EKNATH SHINDE must have realised that helming the coalition government in Maharashtra is not going to be an easy task after the cabinet expansion on August 9 and portfolio allocation five days later. His decision to induct Sanjay Rathod and Abdul Sattar—former ministers and influential members of the Shiv Sena faction loyal to him—into the cabinet attracted widespread criticism almost immediately. Harsh words came not just from Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), but also from a section of his own ally, the BJP. Sattar and Rathod were among the 18 legislators who got ministerial berths, which were distributed equally between the two alliance partners.

Sattar and Rathod were ministers in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government as well. Rathod was shown the door in February last year following the mysterious death of Pooja Chavan, a 22-year-old student from Pune. BJP state vice president Chitra Wagh, who carried out a relentless campaign demanding justice for Pooja, alleged that Rathod was involved. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was then opposition leader, had strongly backed Wagh. So it was natural that she was upset at Rathod’s inclusion in the Shinde cabinet.

Sattar, who is the Shiv Sena’s lone Muslim MLA, got into trouble when it came to light that his daughter benefited from the teachers eligibility test scam and was declared qualified despite having failed the test. The scam is now being probed by the Enforcement Directorate. Uddhav’s Shiv Sena has alleged that Sattar misused his position as a minister in the MVA government.