When Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi early this week, the agenda was very clear. It was a discussion about the upcoming civic polls in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Pune and also about how to handle the open and extreme in-fighting between two of his alliance partners, Deputy CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM State Finance Minister Ajit Pawar. Just last weekend, one of Eknath Shinde's trusted deputies and ministers who holds the 'social justice' portfolio, Sanjay Shirsat, openly said in the media that he was so frustrated with the lack of funds being allocated to his ministry by FM Ajit Pawar that he felt like telling the CM to shut down the Social Welfare ministry! Such comments by a deputy of the former CM, who just six months ago seemed so much firmer in the saddle as far as all the controls of state government were concerned, created waves at Mantralaya, and it became very obvious that there were sharp differences between Ajit Pawar's NCP and Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena.

It has now transpired that the much-publicised Direct Benefit Transfer or DBT schemes, such as Mukhyamantri Ladki Bahin Yojana and Shetkari Sanman Yojana, announced by the state government just ahead of the last assembly........

© Free Press Journal