NCP puts foot down, CM says goodbye to Cabinet expansion

NCP puts foot down, CM says goodbye to Cabinet expansion
PRADIP KUMAR MAITRA

NAGPUR, JUNE 19: The proposed expansion and reshuffle of the Vilasrao Deshmukh Cabinet has once again been put in cold storage as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the principal ally of the government, is not in favour of any more inclusions in the Cabinet.

This is despite the fact that the Chief Minister himself had announced at least a dozen times the cabinet would be expanded and reshuffled soon. He had even claimed that NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had given him the green signal to do so. However, the Chief Minister could do nothing about it since April last.

According to highly reliable sources, Pawar is disinclined to an expansion as he would find it difficult to please all the legislators in his party. He has already pacified some legislators and party functionaries by including them in different state-run boards and corporations recently. Of them, rebel party legislator, Rajendra Singane, has been appointed as administrator of State Cotton Marketing Federation, a post of the rank of state minister. Incidentally, Shingane, who was inducted into the Deshmukh ministry when Deshmukh took over, along with some Congress and independent legislators, was unceremoniously dropped, following the NCP making a hue and cry over the `jumbo-size' of the cabinet.

Talking to The Indian Express an influential minister of the Vilasrao Deshmukh ministry claimed that expansion of the cabinet was delayed due to Pawar as he could not provide the list of new ministers from his party so far.

The minister felt the cabinet expansion may lead to a split in the NCP as the party leadership would not be able to accommodate all legislators in the ministry. Already a sizeable number of legislators, led by former chief minister Sudhakarrao Naik and Shalinitai Patil, widow of Vasantdada Patil, have made it clear that the NCP should break the tie-up with Congress and form a government with the Sena-BJP in the state.

This section feels they are being sidelined by the party leadership and could not form a splinter group despite several attempts, would get an easy passage for do so, if some legislators are accommodated in the cabinet.

The minister, who preferred anonymity, also predicted that the NCP, which was facing rough weather within the organisation, may face a split over sharing of power, as soon as some legislators get berths in the ministry. "Pawar does not want to take such risks at this juncture," he further added.

Besides, the Maratha strongman has to accommodate at least one more person in the cabinet from the Republican Party of India (RPI)-Athawale and for it the party has to sacrifice two council seats. The RPI nominee Gangadhar Gade was dropped from the ministry last month as the NCP could not provide him a council seat.

The Congress is ready for an expansion and its list is also ready. "The Chief Minister will expand the cabinet soon as Ahe gets the list from the NCP," the minister said.

Political observers, however, feel that the Congress is also facing similar problems. As it could not accommodate the maximum number of legislators in the much-delayed board and corporations, it would certainly face resentment among the legislators. The postponement of cabinet expansion thus suits Vilasrao Deshmukh, they feel.