A day after the Cabinet expansion of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on Monday, all the three alliance partners had to face discontent and voices of resentment from within their party.
The Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress were criticised by workers over the choice of new faces by the leaders of their respected parties. On Tuesday the alliance partners also went all out to iron out last-minute disagreements over distribution of portfolios.
Newly-inducted Congress ministers met party president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Tuesday while NCP and Shiv Sena leaderships opened back channel talks with the disgruntled colleagues who missed out on a cabinet berth.
A day after the swearing in ceremony, the anger was palpable from some parts of the State, including Pune where supporters of Congress MLA Sangram Thopate turned violent after they found out their leader was not included in cabinet.
Earlier, the Congress ministers met Ms. Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to discuss the road ahead. Sources in the Congress said the leaders discussed possibilities if the MVA coalition model could be replicated in the local body polls.
“We have also discussed what issues the ministers should be giving priorities once portfolios are allotted,” said a senior minister of the party.
“We met Ms. Gandhi in Delhi along with all the newly inducted ministers of Maharashtra. At the meeting we also met general secretary K.C. Venugopal and Mallikarjun Kharge,” said Cabinet minister Balasaheb Thorat . Sources said more power has been given to Rahul Gandhi in the Maharashtra affairs and he stressed that party ministers must work hard to ward off competition from NCP.
The NCP and the Shiv Sena also held unofficial meetings to tackle the brewing discontent. The Shiv Sena had dropped senior ministers from previous stints including Diwakar Raote, Ramdas Kadam, Tanaji Sawant, Deepak Kesarkar, Ravindra Waikar, while giving a chance to new comers like Aaditya Thackeray, MLA from Worli.
The party has also inducted Independents Bacchu Kadu, Shankarrao Gadakh, and Rajendra Yedravkar.
The discontent was evident in the Congress after old hands and MLAs Naseem Khan, Amin Patel, and Rohidas Patil were left out.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Amin Patel wrote a letter to party president expressing discontent, and pointing out the high command should have at least included one more minister from the minority community. “I have politely pointed out to madam (Sonia Gandhi) at least one more minority minister should have been included since the NCP has two of its own. I will remain in party but wanted the high command to be aware of the injustice,” Mr. Patel told The Hindu .
The announcement of portfolios is also likely this week once the difference are sorted. “Party wise portfolios have been decided by individual head offices. We will take another two days for a formal announcement,” Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said.
