10 days after the swearing in of the Chief Minister and his people’s representatives and almost three weeks after the announcement of the election results, the extension of the cabinet of the Mahayuti government cannot be called a direct step.
If anything, it’s part of a well-thought-out strategy.
In the first such experiment, the leaders of the tripartite alliance have decided to appoint ministers only for half the term of the government, alerting them to audit the performance. Although no minister has publicly complained about it so far, this announcement has given hope to many who could not come to the cabinet this time.
This move by the ruling coalition, which came to power with a large popular vote in 230 of the 288 seats of the legislature, is aimed at reducing the dissatisfaction of many candidates of the three parties. A minister’s berth on his toes.
“We will audit the performance of every minister in the BJP. Where a minister is found not performing as per expectations, there will be a change,” Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, along with Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, told a press conference after the swearing-in ceremony on Sunday.
“We have told the three ministers that each minister will face a performance audit,” Fadnavis asserted. Shinde termed the practice as ‘perform or perish’. Although the upper limit of cabinet ministers in the government is 43, the announcement cannot be taken lightly.
With the support of independents, the grand coalition comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has a majority of 237 in the Legislative Assembly. Such stability in government means leaders at the top are free to exercise and able to keep ministers in check.
In a surprise move, all three ruling coalitions removed senior ministers from the previous cabinet. Sudhir Mungantiwar, Ravindra Chavan, Vijay Kumar Gavit and Suresh Khade have been expelled from the BJP. Tanaji Sawant, Deepak Kesarkar and Abdul Sattar were dropped from the Shiv Sena, while Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse-Patil, Dharmarao Atram, Anil Patil and Sanjay Bansode were from the NCP.
According to sources within the Mahayuti, this move will keep incumbent ministers in check and put constant pressure on them to perform better. “Since we have 237 members on our side, the ministers can work with the mindset of not being questioned.” That cannot happen anymore,” said a senior NCP MLA.
The notion of a possible cabinet reshuffle will also keep alive the hopes of other legislators within the ruling coalition.
In the previous Mahayuti government led by Eknath Shinde, ministers of state were not sworn in and the total number of ministers was kept at 27, giving hope to prevent many MLAs from shifting loyalties to other parties. As the ruling party currently has 237 MLAs, the issue of shifting loyalties is unlikely to be a problem.
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