Maharashtra’s newly inducted Deputy Chief Minister (DCM) Ajit Pawar’s insistence for the finance department in a bouquet of cabinet portfolios in the state is a matter he will have to resolve with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde following his meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Wednesday.

A well-placed source revealed that Shah declined to intervene in the matter and asked Pawar to resolve the issue of cabinet portfolio allocations for his faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) through discussions with Shinde and, DCM Devendra Fadnavis.

After deliberations over two days on Monday and Tuesday between the CM Eknath Shinde, Fadnavis, and Pawar, there was no consensus on the reallocation of cabinet portfolios to administer Maharashtra hereon. Even Thursday witnessed the holding of parleys between the top three leaders of the state to arrive at an agreement.

Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Upper House of the state legislature Ambadas Danve told The Statesman, “With NCP’s induction into the state government, it is the BJP that will have to bear the loss of portfolios from its pre-decided share in order to accommodate Ajit Pawar’s men. Politically, it is a setback for Fadnavis as far as wielding power (read the number of cabinet berths) in Maharashtra. Shinde has benefitted from the political situation while Fadnavis will have a reduced footprint in the state council of ministers hereon.”

Ministers within Shinde’s Sena, including State Excise Minister Shamburaj Desai, independent MLA (Praja party) Bacchu Kadu had openly expressed reservations over the portfolio of finance being handed over to NCP. Kadu went as far as stating, “This can be a triple engine government or, as the old saying goes teen tigada, kam bigada. When Ajit Dada held the finance portfolio under the MVA government we were discriminated against with respect to fund allocation for our constituencies.” The Shinde faction had split from the undivided Shiv Sena claiming inability to work alongside the Congress and NCP parties.

Contrary to media speculations about Pawar being installed as the Chief Minister, the current political situation in Maharashtra (after the NCP faction joined the government) is more conducive for the Shinde-led Shiv Sena which is likely to retain all the cabinet portfolios as agreed to by the BJP when the political formation came to power slightly over a year ago.