Maharashtra: Eknath Shinde camp meets Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis late at night, Sharad Pawar camp hints possible unrest

With all the uncertainty that has ensued in Maharashtra politics after the entry of Ajit Pawar causing the Eknath Shinde camp to worry about its future in the government, the latter met Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis late on Thursday night to get a hold of things. The meeting comes days after Shinde denied that his Shiv Sena MLAs were uncomfortable with the inclusion of Ajit Pawar and 8 Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislators in the state cabinet and claimed that he would remain as the chief minister until 2024. Shinde also presided over a meeting on Wednesday and was reportedly kept in the loop about the fast-paced developments in the NCP which culminated in Ajit Pawar taking oath as deputy CM along with eight other ministers on July 2 in a stunning turn of events.

Meanwhile, the Sharad Pawar camp thinks that the late-night meeting between Fadnavis and Shinde proves that there is unrest in the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and state BJP over the inclusion of NCP legislators in the cabinet.

A spokesperson of the Sharad Pawar faction, Mahesh Tapase, said that Shinde’s MLAs have become insecure over Ajit Pawar and his MLAs getting plum posts, destroying the very they had toppled the Uddhav Thackeray government and joined BJP. Tapase claimed that Shiv Sena MLAs are not sure if they will get ministerial berths. The late-night Shinde Fadnavis meeting proves that there is unrest among the MLAs, Tapase claimed. To make things more uncomfortable for Eknath Shinde, Shiv Sena (UBT) has been slamming him with the rhetoric, tweeting an old video of Shinde where he criticised Chhagan Bhujbal. “Now you are sitting on Chhagan Bhujbal’s lap. What will you say now?” the caption read. With inputs from agencies