Shinde Sena ministers boycott cabinet meeting, tell Fadnavis to stop poaching their party workers

The BJP-led Mahayuti coalition government held its weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday, but it was boycotted by ministers belonging to Deputy Chief Minister Eknath-led Shiv Sena.

Except for Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, no other Shinde-led Sena minister was present at the cabinet meeting held at the Maharashtra state secretariat, according to sources.

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All Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena ministers were present in their respective ministries during the cabinet meeting, but despite this, they chose not to attend the cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

After the cabinet meeting concluded, all Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena ministers, namely Uday Samant, Pratap Sarnaik, Dada Bhuse, Sanjay Shirsat, Prakash Abitkar, Bharat Gogawale, Shambhuraj Desai, and Gulabrao Patil, met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and told him to ensure that the BJP does not lure away Shinde-led Sena workers in Thane and Dombivali to make them join the BJP.

However, Fadnavis rebutted their statements and told the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena ministers that it is the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena itself that began recruiting BJP members in the suburb of Ulhasnagar.

“You (Eknath Shinde-led Sena) were the ones who started it in Ulhasnagar. If you do it, it’s acceptable, but if the BJP does it, it’s not acceptable. This will not work,” Fadnavis told Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena ministers.

Fadnavis also told them that, henceforth, ruling Mahayuti alliance partners must never recruit each other’s party workers.

The latest development came after several recent incidents of Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena leaders joining the BJP, especially in Kalyan-Dombivali and Ulhasnagar, near Mumbai.

Later on Tuesday, Eknath Shiv Sena leader and minister Pratap Sarnaik told media persons, “We met Fadnavis and informed him about the issue of taking away our leaders and workers. He was very cooperative. These mistakes happen at the grassroots level. They will be corrected”.

Shortly thereafter, BJP leader and Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule issued a statement that, “It’s been decided not to poach each other’s workers. There may be some resentment. Our ministers are busy with local civic body elections. Eight BJP ministers also did not attend today’s cabinet meeting. No minister boycotted the cabinet meeting,” in an attempt to convey that everything is normal in the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance.

It is learned that even on Tuesday morning, many former corporators of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena joined the BJP in the Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation in the presence of BJP state president Ravindra Chavan. The BJP had kept this move a secret since Monday and had been harassing corporators close to Shrikant Shinde, sources said, adding that many office bearers and workers of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena are being harassed by the BJP in other parts of Maharashtra as well.

Sources said that the BJP has been inducting Eknath Shinde-led Sena leaders, municipal workers, and office bearers into its fold. Many of those being lured are candidates against whom the BJP had contested elections in the past.

Ministers of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena have been unhappy that several decisions were made or funds were diverted without taking the Shinde-led Sena leaders or guardian ministers into confidence, leading to a situation where Shinde-led Sena ministers struggle to get funds to run their ministry projects. Besides, the BJP has been aggressively expanding in Sambhaji Nagar, Kalyan-Dombivali, Ambernath, and the Konkan region, which are strongholds of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

After news of the cabinet meeting boycott by Shinde-led Sena ministers spread, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena MLA Aaditya Thackeray tweeted on his X account, “Today, ministers of the Mindhe (Shinde) clan boycotted the cabinet meeting because they (the BJP) are trying to split their party (Shinde-led Shiv Sena). But boycotting the state cabinet meeting for their own selfish reasons is an insult to Maharashtra and its people. Cabinet meetings are meant to solve the problems of the people. All this is worrying for Maharashtra. Somebody (Eknath Shinde) might go back to his village today.”

Commenting on today’s development, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sushma Andhare said, “This was destined to happen the day Eknath Shinde defected, took the Surat-Guwahati route, and became Chief Minister. The way the BJP has posed a challenge to Shinde’s MLAs one by one, Eknath Shinde should not be surprised. Because Eknath Shinde forced all of them to commit political suicide to get the Chief Minister’s post. How will Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis explain this? Union Home Minister Amit Shah comes here and says we don’t need any turncoats. Now the BJP is systematically working to remove turncoats like Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar”.