Chief Minister Eknath Shinde along with Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar rides a vintage Rolls Royce car during the inauguration of the northbound arm of the Mumbai Coastal Road in Mumbai
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: Days after drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls, chief minister Eknath Shinde and his two deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar put up a united face as they travelled together in a hoodless vintage Rolls Royce on Monday signalling that all is well within the BJP-led Maha Yuti (NDA) alliance in poll-bound Maharashtra.
The development comes a day after Narendra Modi was sworn in as the prime minister for the third term along with a jumbo ministry, however, Maharashtra has got only six berths.
BJP’s ally Shiv Sena headed by Shinde, which has seven Lok Sabha MPs and one Rajya Sabha MP, just got one cabinet-rank minister, while Pawar’s NCP, which is one member in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha each, was offered a minister of state berth, which they have refused to accept.
With the Vidhan Sabha polls just months away, the BJP wants to keep Shinde and Pawar in good humour - as the Congress and its allies Uddhav Thackeray-headed Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) have established contacts with several of their MLAs.
The video of trio of Shinde-Fadnavis-Pawar travelling in the vintage car has gone viral on social media platforms.
While Shinde was sitting to the left of the driver, Fadnavis and Pawar were at the rear seat.
The Rolls Royce is owned by Raymonds Group - which was given to the state government for the function.
The occasion was the inauguration of the North-bound arm of Phase-1 of Mumbai Coastal Road Project, which has been named as Dharmaveer Sambhaji Maharaj Coastal Road after the son of legendary Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
Asked about the impending cabinet expansion, Shinde said: “Everything will happen…the Coastal Road has happened…that will also happen.”
The event was held on a day when the NCP and NCP (SP) were holding parallel foundation day events on 10 June.
On the other hand, the Shiv Sena and Shiv Sena (UBT) would hold parallel foundation day celebrations on 19 June.
In the Modi 3.0, Maharashtra got six ministers - two of cabinet rank, one minister of state (independent charge) and three ministers of state.
The new ministers are BJP’s cabinet ministers Nitin Gadkari (Nagpur) and Piyush Goyal (Mumbai North), Shiv Sena’s Prataprao Jadhav (Buldhana) and three ministers of state - Ramdas Athawale, a Rajya Sabha member and president of RPI (A) and BJP ministers of state Raksha Khadse (Raver) and Murlidhar Mohol (Pune).
40 MLAs of Shinde and Ajit Pawar to leave: Wadettiwar
In a sensational claim in the run up to the Vidhan Sabha polls in Maharashtra, Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar on Monday said that 40 MLAs of Eknath Shinde-Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP would leave and join the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Besides, Wadettiwar, who is a former minister and Congress MLA, said that Shinde and Pawar had lost “bargaining power” which was evident for their share in the third edition of the Narendra Modi-government. “There is a huge unrest among the legislators of Shiv Sena and NCP which had split in June 2022 and July 2023,” he said adding that post the Lok Sabha polls and sweating in of third edition of Narendra Modi government, many of their MLAs are in contact with us and they want to come back ahead of the October Assembly elections.
We will win 180-185 seats: Raut
The MVA would contest all the 288 seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and aims to win 180-185 seats, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said after a review meeting of the party chaired by Uddhav Thackeray. “Unitedly, the MVA would fight the elections together and win 180-185 seats,” said Raut, a Rajya Sabha member and chief spokesperson of the party.