The senior leadership of Shiv Sena (Shinde) is very upset that Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was not invited to the inauguration of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue at Navi Mumbai International Airport recently.
The issue is likely to blow up in the cabinet meeting tomorrow. Senior minister and close aide of Eknath Shinde, Sanjay Shirsat, was vocal in saying that he will raise the issue in the cabinet meeting, as it was not a good gesture to exclude the Deputy Chief Minister.
The 12-foot bronze statue was inaugurated by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the presence of BJP minister Ganesh Naik and local legislators Prashant Thakur and Mahesh Baldi. Deputy Chief Minister Shinde, despite being the guardian minister of the Thane district, was not invited to the event, as the invitation card only featured the name of Chief Minister Fadnavis as the chief guest.
UBT Sena leader Ambadas Danve has called it a sidelining of Shinde and a pointer to the fact that fissures are growing within the ruling MahaYuti alliance that governs the state. Interestingly, Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar was also not invited to the event, but the NCP led by her has decided not to make an issue out of it. Representing the NCP at the event was Women and Child Development Minister Aditi Tatkare.
It is a well-known political fact that senior BJP minister Ganesh Naik and Eknath Shinde are rivals in Navi Mumbai politics. Shinde has tried his best to wrest control of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation from Naik's hands.
Danve further said that Shinde not being invited to an event in the district where he is the guardian minister clearly shows his current standing in the government. It also shows which way the wind is blowing in the MahaYuti alliance.
Danve then took a dig at Shinde and said that, at the most, Shinde will simply go to his village after getting angry and sidelined. There is a big wave of dissatisfaction in the alliance, and the Shinde-led Sena and the BJP have been trying to corner and undermine each other.
