Six Maharashtrian MPs have joined the Modi-3.0 coalition government; the BJP holds four seats, while the allies RPI and Shiv Sena each have one. Notably, the BJP offered Ajit Pawar, the Deputy Chief Minister led by the NCP, the position of Minister of State (MoS) with independent charge, but Patel had to be appointed to the cabinet. In the 2019–24 Modi government’s second term, the BJP and its allies were represented by eight Maharashtra ministers. As of Sunday, there are just six of these.
Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal, both BJP MPs, were kept on as cabinet ministers in the new administration. The BJP’s lone female MP from Maharashtra, Raksha Khadse, and newcomer MP Murlidhar Mohol took the oath of office as Ministers of State.Chief of the RPI (A), Ramdas Athawale, continued to hold the role of Minister of State with independent charge, as did Prataprao Jadhav of the Shiv Sena, who took the oath of office in the presence of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The NCP, led by Ajit Pawar, turned down the chance to become a minister of state, arguing that Rajya Sabha member Praful Patel should be appointed to the cabinet because of his wealth of experience. On Sunday, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis stated that coalition agreements must be adhered to, promising the NCP a say in future cabinet augmentations.
According to him, a coalition government must follow a set formula that cannot be altered to benefit one party. “With confidence, I can state that the government will take the NCP into consideration if cabinet expansion occurs. The senior BJP leader stated, “We tried to include NCP right now, but they insisted on cabinet portfolio.” The eight Maharashtra ministers who served in the Modi administration from 2019 to 24 were Ramdas Athawale of the RPI (A) and the BJP’s Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Narayan Rane, Bhagwat Karad, Raosaheb Danve, Bharti Pawar, and Kapil Patil.
The BJP performed badly in Maharashtra at the most recent Lok Sabha elections, winning only nine seats as opposed to 23 of the state’s 48 constituencies in 2019. The NCP led by Ajit Pawar won just one seat, while the Shiv Sena led by Shinde won seven. In the most recent elections, Gadkari, Goyal, Khadse, and Mohol won the Lok Sabha seats from Nagpur, Mumbai North, Raver, and Pune, respectively.
Interestingly, despite Narayan Rane’s victory in the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha seat, the BJP chose not to reappoint him to the Union cabinet. Raosaheb Danve, Bharati Pawar, and Kapil Patil, three more BJP ministers from the previous cabinet, did not win this election.
