Battle for Home & Finance portfolios on in new Maharashtra govt

Mumbai: Even as political action heats up in the run up to the speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election and the subsequent confidence vote, the focus of the new Eknath Shindeled government is on assignment of the all-important portfolios of Home and Finance departments.

In the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi administration, the Shiv Sena had claimed the chief ministerial post but the Home and Finance portfolios were granted to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders. The Urban Development, Industries, Agriculture, Environment and Tourism cabinet ministers were again from Shiv Sena while the Congress party was allocated Public Works and Revenue portfolios.

According to sources, one point of view is that since the deputy chief minister’s post is with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it should be granted the departments that were assigned to Congress and NCP in the previous government. “The BJP always keeps the Home portfolio in whichever government it forms. So, Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis would definitely want it,” said a source.

However, sources within the BJP claim that the portfolios will be divided in accordance with the strength of MLAs each party has. While the BJP has the support of 120 MLAs, CM Shinde’s rebel MLA group has the support of 50 MLAs. “Therefore, one-third of total MLAs should receive portfolios accordingly,” said a senior BJP leader.

The crucial importance of the Home department and the usefulness of state intelligence was underlined when Eknath Shinde-led rebel MLAs managed to escape to Surat and then to Guwahati last month. Former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was completely in the dark about their whereabouts on the night of June 20, hours after the Legislative Council polling, wherein BJP candidates managed to secure 134 votes.

While Shinde had only 14 MLAs in his camp initially, the MVA government failed to stop more MLAs from reaching Guwahati via Surat. In the end, the group number swelled to 39 Shiv Sena MLAs and 11 Independents, which led to the collapse of the coalition government.