Eknath Shinde meets Shah, complains about poaching of Sena ministers by BJP

Amid the unease within his party over the efforts by the ruling BJP to poach its leaders and workers, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Wednesday night and brought the issue to the notice of the latter.

In a crucial development that came after several of his party ministers boycotted a state Cabinet meeting on Tuesday over the ruling BJP’s ongoing efforts to poach the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) ministers and partymen, Shinde urged Shah to rein in his state party leadership from wooing the Shinde Sena leaders and workers.

The peeved Shinde Sena ministers had boycotted the State Cabinet meeting – presided over by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis – to express their displeasure over the recent defections from Shinde Sena to the BJP in Kalyan-Dombivli. Incidentally, the state BJP President Ravindra Chavan – the brain behind the recent defections — hails from Dombivli.

Kalyan – from where the deputy chief minister’s son, Dr Shrikant Shinde, is an MP – is part of Thane district, which is considered the bastion of Eknath Shinde. Following the boycott of the State Cabinet meeting, a group of Sena ministers met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and urged him to stop defections from the Shiv Sena (Shinde) to the BJP.

On his part, Fadnavis told the Sena ministers that the defections were in retaliation to the effort by the Shinde Sena to rope in the BJP leaders from Ulhasnagar, a business township adjacent to Kalyan.

During the meeting held on Tuesday night, Shinde reportedly told Shinde that the atmosphere in the state is extremely favourable for the alliance in the upcoming local body elections because of the work done by the government.

However, he complained to the Union Home Minister that some BJP leaders are spoiling the environment, giving the opposition an undue advantage. After that, it was principally decided that the Maha Yuti allies—BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP—will not poach each other’s leaders.

SHAH IS REAL CM OF MAHARASHTRA: SAPKAL

Mumbai: The Opposition Congress in Maharashtra on Thursday termed Union Home Minister Amit Shah as the “real Chief Minister” of Maharashtra and referred to Devendra Fadnavis as the “shadow Chief Minister”.

Claiming that Fadnavis was no longer the chief minister of Maharashtra, State Congress chief   Harshavardhan Sapkal said: “In all important matters relating to Maharashtra, it is Shah who takes the call”.

“A few days ago, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar met Shah after his son Parth Pawar’s name got embroiled in a land scam. Now Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has met Shah after his local leaders were poached by the BJP,” Sakpal said.

Sapkal said that the Shiv Sena and NCP had become allies for the BJP for the sake of power and convenience.

It may be recalled that during last week, Ajit Pawar -- who is the NCP President, had met Shah amid demand for his resignation over the registration of an FIR against his son Parth in connection with a land scam case in Pune.

The alleged land scam involves 40 acres of ‘Mahar Watan Land’, denoting hereditary landholding to the Mahar (Scheduled Caste) community, in Pune’s upmarket Mundhwa area off the Koregaon Park in Pune. The land was sold for Rs 300 crore to Amadea Enterprises LLP, in which Parth and Digvijay Amarsinh Patil are partners... A stamp duty amounting to Rs 21 crore on the land deal was waived. The market value of the property is said to be Rs 1,800 crore.

This week, several Shinde Sena ministers stayed away from the State Cabinet meeting as they were upset with the BJP inducting local-level leaders in Kalyan-Dombivli in Thane district.