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THE PAWAR STORY

After being made Deputy Chief Minister in the Eknath Shinde government and taking the Finance portfolio from Devendra Fadnavis, NCP rebel leader Ajit Pawar paid a surprise visit to Sharad Pawar. Earlier another NCP rebel, Chhagan Bhujbal had posted a public message wishing Mrs Pratibha Pawar a speedy recovery as she was admitted to Mumbai’s Breach Candy hospital. What is happening in the rebel camp? In fact given the fact that key portfolios to the NCP breakaway faction were given at the expense of the existing BJP and Shinde Sena portfolios, the BJP has a tough task ahead managing disgruntled leaders in its own camp. There is a buzz that Eknath Shinde could soon be shifted to the Centre, leaving the CM’s chair for Ajit Pawar. Clearly, the last act in the Maharashtra drama is still to be played out.

Musical Chairs in MP?

Will Jyotiraditya Scindia be made Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, replacing current CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan? That seems to be the buzz in the state, especially after Scindia, Chouhan and the new state in charge, Bhupendra Yadav met the Governor recently. The move to shift out Chouhan has been on the cards for a while, but he is said to be resisting the same, and he does have the backing of the RSS on this. But recent surveys of the state have shown that he is on a backfoot in the face of Kamal Nath’s rising popularity, which could be one reason why these rumours have resurfaced. But would it make sense to replace Chouhan with an “outsider” or promote one from within the ranks. Again while Scindia has an outstanding governance record in his various stints as a Union Minister, he is still to be tried at party politics. However, if this shift were to happen it would mean that Scindia’s case has the backing of the Big Two in the BJP. And that by itself is a strong signal down the party ranks.

Rumours chasing their own tail

Last week the rumours of a Modi government cabinet reshuffle were doing the rounds, with speculation that there could be a change at the Finance Ministry with Nirmala Sitharaman being sent for party work. Names of her replacement ranged from Piyush Goyal to Shaktikanta Das and Rajeev Mehrishi. What sparked this rumour was when her OSD Vivek Singh’s tenure was curtailed citing “personal grounds”. This had sparked conjecture that Nirmala was on her way out. But apparently the reason why Vivek Singh had wanted out was that he was keen to contest the next polls and had nothing to do with Nirmala Sitharamanan’s own stint as FM.

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