It has been 10 months since the Mahayuti alliance government was elected to office; however, the dispute over the guardian ministership of two districts—Nashik and Raigad—refuses to end.
In Nashik, the BJP and Shinde Sena are fighting over who gets the coveted post, whereas in Raigad, the fight is between Shinde Sena and NCP.
Shinde Sena wants to name Dada Bhuse, school education minister and close aide of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as Nashik’s guardian minister, while the BJP wants to name senior minister Girish Mahajan.
In Raigad, the fight is between ministers Bharat Gogavale and Aditi Tatkare, daughter of NCP state president Sunil Tatkare, who is also a close aide of Ajit Pawar.
Recently, Industries Minister Uday Samant was in Raigad. He then said Shiv Sena must get the guardian ministership of the Raigad district, and minister Bharat Gogavale is its candidate for that post. The NCP immediately countered it by raising the name of Aditi Tatkare.
Tatkare and Gogavale are rivals in Raigad district politics for a long time now. They were rivals even when they were part of the united Shiv Sena and the united NCP respectively.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has not taken any decision yet about both districts, even though the Independence Day is nearing. It is the guardian minister of the district who gets to hoist the national tricolour on August 15 and January 26.
But this is not the only reason why guardian ministership is most sought after. The guardian minister is also the controller of funds of the District Planning and Development Council through which various development works are undertaken in the district. Thus, the guardian minister can decide the course of the development in the district. He or she can also play favouritism here and give preference to taluks that are supporting the party that he is part of when it comes to development works.
