Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has finally succeeded in ensuring that his party ministers will represent him in the state legislature when it comes to replying to questions and debates. By doing so, he has ensured that his three deputies – the ministers of state (MoS), who are from the BJP, are kept at bay.
The FPJ had carried a report on Shinde’s move to let his men represent him in the state legislative business on March 4.
According to the legislative norms, the MoS of a particular department assists his seniors by replying to questions and debates. While Shinde heads the departments of urban development (UD), housing, and PWD-MSRDC, he has three MoS – Madhuri Misal for the UD, Pankaj Bhoyar for the housing, and Meghna Sakore Bordikar for the MSRDC.
Shinde had written to the presiding officers of both the houses of the state legislature to let his men offer reply – Uday Samant for the UD, Shambhuraj Desai for the housing, and Dadaji Bhuse for the MSRDC. Interestingly, such a request can only be made if a minister has no deputy under him or is unable to attend legislative business or is preoccupied in other legislative business. Secondly, the request has to be ratified by the chief minister before it is forwarded to the presiding officers.
But in the last two days, Desai has been answering questions posed for the housing department, and Samant is doing this job for the UD. On Thursday, Desai faced a calling attention motion from the Housing department, and Shinde intervened to clarify the government's stand on some crucial points.
On Friday, Samant replied to questions asked by the members during the question hour in the state assembly on the UD, even though the MoS was present in the house. MoS Madhuri Misal was allowed to face a question related to a bridge from Pune, which is her hometown. She replied to supplementary questions about a fire incident in Andheri, but most of the replies came from Samant. When the question hour was on, Shinde was in the State Council.
According to an official, by deputing his party colleagues for the legislative business, Shinde is ensuring that no policy decision or major announcement comes from the MoS of the BJP.
