Showcasing the discontent among the leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Shiv Sena’s sole Muslim leader which it used to placate the Muslim populace has quit the government. Abdul Sattar has resigned disgruntled over not getting a cabinet birth, he was allotted Minister of State (MOS) berth. The alliance seems to be in trouble as several MLA’s of Sena, Congress and NCP have expressed anger after not being included in the ministry. The greed of the MLA’s who were promised lucrative posts fearing defections is on the fore now as several MLAs have shown discontent over not being allotted a Cabinet berth.
According to media reports, Shiv Sena leader Abdul Sattar has resigned as a minister of state from the Maha Vikas Agadi government in Maharashtra. The politician, who had joined the Shiv Sena from the Congress just before the assembly elections, was said to be upset over not being given a more prominent position in the state cabinet.
Saving the face of the party from the embarrassment, senior Sena leader Eknath Shinde said, “The senior Aurangabad leader’s decision is yet to be accepted by his party. We haven’t received his resignation.”
It was assumed the day this coalition was born that it is bound to fail due to the aspirations of three major parties and its leaders. The three parties- NCP, Congress and the Sena have very diverse political sphere however they opportunistically formed an alliance only to exclude BJP from coming to power. Confirming this, Shiv Sena has admitted in its mouthpiece that there was a tussle among senior leaders of the three ruling alliance parties in Maharashtra for key Cabinet berths, and said some MLAs could not be inducted as ministers because the list of “probables” was huge.
An editorial in ‘Saamana’ said “The Cabinet expansion was, indeed, delayed but it finally happened. There were some sparks of disappointment from those who could not make the cut, but the list of probables was huge,” the Shiv Sena said. The Congress used to call Shiv Sena’s protests as ‘rada culture’ (hooliganism), but what Thopte’s alleged supporters did was exactly the same, it said. “This does not suit the “Congress culture”, the editorial said.
The discontent is not only limited to Sena MLA’s but in Congress and NCP MLAs too as the hunger for power is the sole reason behind this coalition rather than ideological obligations, supporters of Bhor Congress MLA Sangram Thopte went on a rampage at the Congress headquarters in Pune over not getting a ministerial berth.
Similarly, the supporters of Solapur Congress MLA Praniti Shinde, the daughter of former chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, have decided to write a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in blood, seeking justice for their leader. Supporters are following in the footsteps of Solapur District Youth Congress president Nitin Nagane, who has already written a letter in “blood” to the Congress president. The disgruntled leaders included Ramdas Kadam, environment minister in the erstwhile Fadnavis government, Diwakar Raote and Deepak Kesarkar. Shiv Sena MP Bhavana Gawali from Yavatmal-Washim openly voiced her resentment, saying she was expecting the induction of legislators Sanjay Raimulkar or Gopikishan Bajoria from the western Vidarbha region, but that didn’t happen. Sena leader Bhaskar Jadhav said though he was the senior-most MLA in the party, he had been denied a ministerial berth. Majalgaon MLA Prakash Solanke, who had threatened to resign, was pacified by senior NCP leaders such as Ajit Pawar and Dhananjay Munde.
These reports confirm that this opportunistic alliance does not have a clear road ahead as ministers are eyeing for lucrative portfolios, their dissatisfaction is bound to increase after the allocation of the portfolios. Maha Vikas Aghadi is formed by power-hungry parties to oblige their greed instead of public service.
