Mumbai: From a crestfallen face at a Delhi meeting of Mahayuti leaders Thursday, to a sudden flight to his native village in Satara district Friday, outgoing Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde has indicated he may not be completely happy with the new arrangement for the Mahayuti 2.0 government following the massive mandate for the alliance in the state polls.
In all probability, Maharashtra will have a BJP CM, with Devendra Fadnavis being the frontrunner for the post, while Ajit Pawar and Shinde will be asked to take up the roles of deputy CM. The BJP won an unprecedented 132 of Maharashtra’s 288 assembly seats, followed by the Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s 57 and Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP’s) 41.
Although the Shinde-led Shiv Sena wanted the Mahayuti to retain Shinde as CM, its partners—BJP and Ajit Pawar-led NCP—want him in a new avatar as a deputy CM in a BJP-led Mahayuti government.
In Maharashtra’s long tradition of factionalism within the Congress and coalition politics, this is hardly an anomaly. There have been many tall leaders who have first served as CM and then taken up relatively junior positions in the government to accommodate political compulsions from time to time.
Political commentator Hemant Desai said, “At different points of time, leaders have had to take up junior positions in governments after having served as CM to protect their political existence, cooperative institutions and businesses.”
Here’s a look at some of them:
PK Sawant
Chronologically, P. K. Sawant is the first, but in the list of CMs who have served in lower positions later, he is not the most significant example. A Congress leader ThePrint contacted said he was not a heavyweight or a political magnate, but was still a popular leader, especially in the Konkan region.
Sawant was the caretaker CM from 25 November to 5 December 1963, after the death of Marotrao Kannamwar. He later served as cabinet minister with portfolios such as agriculture, parliamentary affairs and medical education in the Vasantrao Naik government from 5 December, 1963, and 1 March, 1967.
Sawant was in the second Vasantrao Naik cabinet too from 1967 to 1972, handling portfolios such as revenue, forests, water supply, food and drug administration, nomadic tribes and khar land development at different times during this period.
Shankarrao Chavan
Shankarrao Chavan served as CM from February 1975 to April 1977.
In 1978, when Sharad Pawar, then a minister in the Vasantdada Patil government, toppled it with a group of rebels and installed himself as CM, Shankarrao was part of his cabinet, holding portfolios such as water resources and industries.
“Shankarrao Chavan had become CM due to support from Delhi and had lost popularity post the Emergency. He had briefly started a faction of the Congress called Maharashtra Samajwadi Congress and it was imperative for him to stay in power at the time. PK Sawant didn’t have establishments but Shankarrao Chavan had cooperatives, sugar factories, business interests,” the Congress leader quoted earlier said.
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Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar
In 2003, the Sushilkumar Shinde-led Congress-NCP government inducted Shivajirao Patil-Nilangekar in the cabinet. Nilangekar had been Maharashtra’s CM from June 1985 to March 1986. He had to resign from his post after the Bombay High Court passed strictures against him after allegations of fraud in a Mumbai University examination at his behest to help his daughter.
Nilangekar’s inclusion in the cabinet was mainly a part of social arithmetic. He was a Maratha from Marathwada with a stake in sugar cooperatives.
The very next year, CM Shinde downsized his cabinet and dropped four cabinet ministers, including Nilangekar, and 18 ministers of state.
Narayan Rane
Narayan Rane started his political career in the 1970s with the Shiv Sena in Mumbai’s Chembur area. By the 1990s, he had emerged as one of the powerful people in the party. In the first Shiv Sena-BJP government, he was made revenue minister. Ultimately, he became the CM for a very brief period, 9 months, between February and October 1999.
However, in the subsequent assembly elections, the NCP-Congress alliance came to power in the state and Rane had to vacate his chair. By 2005, Rane was expelled from the Shiv Sena following his altercation and differences with Uddhav Thackeray.
Rane then joined the Congress in 2005 and he was given the post of revenue minister. He worked under Congress CM Vilasrao Deshmukh. However, he accused the Congress of going back on its promise of making him the CM. He was expelled from the party but after he apologised, he was taken back and once again given a ministry—industries under Prithviraj Chavan.
Ashok Chavan
Ashok Chavan, a tall Congress leader now with the BJP, was made the chief minister between November 2009 and November 2010 for a year after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. However, the Adarsh housing scam and corruption charges rocked his chair and he had to demit it to give way to Prithviraj Chavan. Although he stayed in the party, he did not take up any ministerial role immediately because of the corruption charges.
In 2014, for Lok Sabha elections, he was nominated by the party and won that year but the Congress lost power in the state and Centre.
However, when he attempted to get re-elected in 2019 as MP, he lost his Nanded seat, which made the party announce his candidature for the assembly seat. He won the assembly seat.
With the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), and Uddhav Thackeray claiming the CM post, Chavan took up the PWD minister position.
Amid talks of a rift within the MVA, Chavan had in 2020 told The Indian Express in an interview that there is a growing feeling among senior Congress leaders and ministers that the party isn’t getting its due as a partner.
Later, that year, when the undivided Shiv Sena under Thackeray had slammed the Congress as “weak and ineffective”, suggesting that Sharad Pawar lead the United Progressive Alliance, Chavan had slammed the Uddhav-led Sena saying it wasn’t a part of the UPA and should not comment about it.
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Devendra Fadnavis
Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as chief minister when the BJP came to power in 2014. After staying away briefly from the government, the Shiv Sena joined, and the BJP-Shiv Sena completed its second government in the state.
After Vasantrao Naik, Fadnavis achieved a rare feat of being the CM who has completed a full 5-year term, a badge earned only by one Maharashtra CM before him—Congress’s Vasantrao Naik.
Shortly after, he also made history for being Maharashtra’s CM for the shortest duration when he took oath as CM in 2019 with Ajit Pawar as his deputy. The government collapsed in 72 hours.
After the two feats, Fadnavis had to take up the deputy’s role. When Eknath Shinde split the Shiv Sena and toppled the MVA government in June 2022, BJP lent support and Shinde along with rebels formed the government with BJP’s support.
Although Fadnavis had earlier announced that he would sit out of the government and guide it from outside, the same evening, he was sworn in as Shinde’s deputy. This came after BJP president JP Nadda announced that Fadnavis won’t sit it out and will be very much a part of the government.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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