BJP Rejects Shiv Sena’s Request for Home Ministry in Maharashtra Cabinet

Mumbai, 9th December 2024: The BJP has rejected Shiv Sena’s request for the home ministry in the Maharashtra Cabinet and instead offered the alliance partner a choice of other key portfolios, including revenue, urban development, and public works. The BJP has already allocated the finance and planning portfolios to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Sources within the BJP revealed that the party has made it clear to Shiv Sena that it will not be given the home ministry. On December 5, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis took the oath as Chief Minister alongside Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar as deputies, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in attendance. Fadnavis confirmed that cabinet expansion would occur before the Winter Session, starting on December 16. Sources indicated that the expansion would take place after the special session from December 7 to 9.

Shiv Sena has been pressing for the home portfolio for Shinde, especially after he stepped down from the Chief Minister’s position. Several Shiv Sena leaders, including Gulabrao Patil, Sanjay Shirsat, and Bharat Googawle, have advocated for this demand. However, the BJP, which secured 132 of the 288 seats in the state assembly, has insisted on keeping the home ministry and the Chief Minister’s post.

Fadnavis, speaking to the media, emphasized that having the BJP control the home ministry, both at the state and Union levels, would ensure smoother coordination. In his first term as CM, Fadnavis held the home portfolio and implemented significant reforms that helped unify the state’s police force, which had been fragmented by internal divisions.

The BJP has assured its alliance partners of fair representation in the Cabinet, while also indicating that it will have the highest number of ministers due to its majority. Sources suggest the BJP will have 18 to 20 ministers, Shiv Sena will receive 12 to 14, and NCP will have 9 to 11. The Mahayuti coalition is expected to form a larger Cabinet with 30 to 35 ministers, with the maximum permissible number being 43, including the Chief Minister.

A senior BJP official, speaking anonymously, stated that while the transition from Shinde to Fadnavis as Chief Minister will bring some changes, most of the portfolio allocations will remain as they were, with only minor adjustments. He also suggested that there could be some negotiations over a few departments.

BJP is likely to retain portfolios such as energy, water resources, tribal welfare, housing, rural development, OBC welfare, and higher education. In the previous government, the BJP also held revenue and public works, and if Shiv Sena retains urban development, the BJP will reclaim revenue and public works.

Shiv Sena will likely continue to handle industries, school education, health, water supply, sanitation, public works, minority development, the Waqf board, and the Marathi language, all of which it managed in the prior administration.

The NCP has expressed satisfaction with the existing arrangement, seeking to retain portfolios like finance, cooperation, agriculture, health, higher education, food and drug administration, and women and child welfare, while also requesting the housing portfolio.