Mumbai: The Mahayuti government’s cabinet expansion has sparked angry reactions from senior leaders of the alliance such as the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP’s) Chhagan Bhujbal and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Vijay Shivtare.

Bhujbal, among the heavyweights from the previous Mahayuti cabinet to be dropped, spelled out that he was upset and also declared that he had rejected his party’s offer to accommodate him in the Rajya Sabha.

The Devendra Fadnavis-led Mahayuti government in Maharashtra expanded its cabinet on Sunday in Nagpur, inducting 39 new ministers—19 from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 11 from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and nine from Ajit Pawar-led NCP. The Mahayuti dropped several heavyweight leaders who were ministers in the previous Shinde-led government such as NCP’s Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil, Shiv Sena’s Tanaji Sawant, Deepak Kesarkar and Abdul Sattar, and the BJP’s Ravindra Chavan and Sudhir Mungantiwar, among others. 

Mahayuti sources told ThePrint that the BJP leadership had instructed all three parties to drop ministers who have stirred up controversies and have not performed too well in their respective departments.

On the first day of the winter session of the legislature Monday in Nagpur, leaders such as Kesarkar, Sattar and Walse Patil told reporters that they were not upset about the leadership’s decision to drop their names from the cabinet. 

However, some other leaders such as Mungantiwar and Sawant were conspicuous by their absence from the session. The two leaders did not respond to ThePrint’s calls and text messages.

Another cabinet aspirant, Shiv Sena MLA Narendra Bhondekar, resigned from the party’s post as deputy leader Sunday, angered at being denied an opportunity to work in the cabinet.

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‘Reward for taking on Manoj Jarange Patil’

Bhujbal, one of Maharashtra’s most prominent leaders from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community, was visibly upset Monday, saying he did not expect this from the leadership.

Speaking to reporters in Nagpur, Bhujbal said, “Yes, I am upset.” On questions over whether he had discussed it with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Bhujbal said, “I didn’t feel the need to.”

Bhujbal was among the senior-most leaders to rebel against the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and follow Ajit Pawar in his rebellion in July 2023. A former Deputy CM, Bhujbal joined the Shinde-led Mahayuti cabinet the same month as minister of the food and civil supplies department. 

He had ruffled feathers within the Mahayuti when he started criticising his own government’s decision to grant eligible persons from the Maratha community reservation as ‘Kunbis’ under the OBC quota in November 2023. The OBCs had strongly opposed the Shinde government’s move and Bhujbal was at the helm of the protests. He had even offered to resign as minister at the time.

On Monday, Bhujbal called his removal from the cabinet a “reward” for standing up to Maratha leader Manoj Jarange Patil, who had led multiple agitations against the Mahayuti government demanding for either a standalone Maratha quota or reservation for all Marathas as Kunbis in the OBC quota.

“I am a common karyakarta, how does it matter if I am sidestepped or cast aside? Ministership has come and gone many times. It has never destroyed Chhagan Bhujbal,” the MLA from Yeola said.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, Bhujbal had by and large stayed away from the Mahayuti’s campaign in the Nashik district, annoyed at being denied candidature. Then ahead of the assembly poll, his nephew Sameer Bhujbal had quit the NCP to contest as an Independent from the Nandgaon assembly seat against Mahayuti’s official candidate Suhas Kande from the Shiv Sena.

On Monday, Bhujbal also said that he had been offered a Rajya Sabha seat, which he has as of now rejected saying it would be a “breach of trust” of those who voted for him as an MLA. The leader said he wanted to be a Rajya Sabha MP earlier this year when the party decided to give the opportunity to Nitin Patil from the Satara district. 

An NCP functionary close to Ajit Pawar told ThePrint that the deputy CM had asked him to have a conversation with Bhujbal and calm him down. “He is a senior valued leader in our party, and I am sure Ajit dada will take the right decision about what responsibility to give him next. Senior leaders Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare will also have a discussion with him.”

Meanwhile, Walse Patil, another senior NCP leader to be dropped from the cabinet, told reporters that the Mahayuti got many MLAs elected, while there are just a few cabinet spots. “I accept the party’s decision,” he said.

‘Party workers are not slaves’

Within the Shiv Sena, leaders such as Kesarkar and Sattar, incumbent ministers who were dropped, said they are not upset about the party’s decision, but a cabinet hopeful, Vijay Shivtare, said he was “100 percent unhappy with the way he was treated”.

Shivtare, an MLA from Purandar Haveli in the Pune district, told reporters, “I am not upset about the fact that I have not been given a minister post, but there is a way to work by taking everyone in confidence. Because that didn’t happen, I am 100 percent upset.”

The Shiv Sena and NCP leaderships have tried to calm frayed nerves among cabinet aspirants by saying that they will rotate ministerships after 2.5 years.

However, Shivtare said he won’t take up a ministerial berth even if he is offered one 2.5 years later. “I am not upset about the ministership, I am upset about how we have been treated,” he added.

Shivtare wanted to contest the Baramati Lok Sabha seat earlier this year at a time when Ajit Pawar wanted to field his wife Sunetra Pawar to take on the incumbent Supriya Sule. Mahayuti leaders at the time had requested him to stay out of the race so as to ensure that Mahayuti votes were not split. Sunetra Pawar eventually contested the election against Sule and lost. 

Speaking to reporters Monday, Kesarkar said, “There are some people who have not got an opportunity who are upset. I would like to tell them not to be unhappy. Work for the party, and in any government, MLAs also have responsibility, they should discharge that responsibility well. They should have some patience. After 2.5 years many of them will get an opportunity.”

(Edited by Gitanjali Das)

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