Hectic lobbying has begun in the rebel Shiv Sena camp and also in the BJP to get ministerial berths in the new government. Shiv Sena rebel ministers Uday Samant, Gulabrao Patil, Dadaji Bhuse, Sandeepan Bhumre, Abdul Sattar, Bachhu Kadu, Rajendra Patil Yadravkar and Shambhuraj Desai are the front runners as they enjoy good rapport with Shinde. These ministers had defected to the Shinde-led rebel camp on an assurance about ministerial berths in the new government.
Rebel ministers and MLAs, who are currently camping in Goa, will return to Mumbai on July 2 to participate in the special assembly session slated for July 3 and 4. The new government is expected to have about 42 to 45 ministers and sources hinted that Shinde-led rebels will get more representation compared to BJP.
The Prahar JanShakti legislator Bacchu Kadu, who was the minister of state for school education, has already urged Shinde to elevate him as cabinet minister. Similar demand has been made by Desai and Sattar who were minister of state for home and minister of state for revenue respectively in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
On the other hand, Tanaji Sawant, who was minister in the BJP-Shiv Sena government ahead of 2019 assembly elections, is another aspirant for cabinet minister’s post. Rebel camp’s spokesman and former minister of state Deepak Kesarkar has made a strong case for the cabinet minister’s post.
Further, few more rebel legislators including Sanjay Shirsat, Bharat Gogawale and Anil Babar have expressed desire to be ministers of state.
In BJP too, the list is long. Former cabinet ministers Chandrakant Patil, Girish Mahajan, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Jaikumar Rawal, Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Sanjay Kute, Ashish Shekar, Sambhaji Patil-Nilangekar while party legislator from Parvati in Pune district Madhuri Misal and senior legislator Rajendra Patil are the main contenders to be cabinet ministers while the leader of opposition Pravin Darekar is confident to be sworn in as cabinet minister.
Further, the party may consider the induction of Vijaykumar Gavit, Kisan Kathie, Suresh Khadse, Yogesh Sagar and Ravindra Chavan as cabinet ministers. The contenders for the ministers of state included Rahul Aher, Tushar Rathod, Atul Save, Jaikumar Gore, Shivendraraje Bhosle, Randhir Savarkar and Devayani Pharande.
