A day after expansion of Maharashtra Cabinet, voices of resentment resonated in the camps of the ruling Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress criticising the choice of new faces by the leadership of respected parties. On Tuesday evening, supporters of Bhor Congress MLA Sangram Thopte attacked the party office in Pune to protest against his non-induction into the State Ministry.
While a section of Congress leaders is upset over non-induction of the party loyalists into the new council of ministers, leaders of the Sena have expressed disapproval over party seniors and former ministers not finding place.
On Monday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray inducted a total of 36 ministers in his one-month-old coalition government comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress.
Among the 36, 14 ministers (ten Cabinet and four MoS) belonged to the NCP, 12 to the Sena (eight Cabinet and four MoS), and 10 to Congress (eight Cabinet and two MoS).
Hours after the cabinet expansion on Monday night, NCP MLA from Beed district Prakash Solanke had announced that he will resign on Tuesday, saying he was “unworthy to do politics”.
However, on Tuesday, NCP leadership succeeded in making him change his mind.
Reports of some Sena leaders being unhappy after not being inducted into the new cabinet are also doing rounds.
Thackeray has dropped several ministers, including seniors like Ramdas Kadam, Diwakar Raote and Ravindra Waikar who were part of the previous BJP-led Government, in the new Government.
Despite Sena leaders' appeal to their workers to maintain discipline, a Solapur district functionary of the party, Shaila Godse, resigned over non-induction of former minister from the region, Tanaji Sawant.
Meanwhile, Solapur district Youth Congress president Nitin Nagne on Tuesday wrote a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi in his blood over non-induction of three-time MLA Praniti Shinde, daughter of Congress veteran Sushilkumar Shinde, into the new council of ministers.
A Congress corporator resigned from the Solapur Municipal Corporation as well as a party member in support of Praniti Shinde. Shinde said, “I accept the decision of the party leadership. Since this is a three-party government, everybody cannot be accommodated, I will request party workers to exercise restraint”.