MUMBAI: Ahead of the swearing-in of the Maharashtra chief minister and deputy chief ministers, the BJP has asked its alliance partners — Shiv Sena and NCP — not to recommend tainted MLAs to be inducted as ministers in the new MahaYuti government. According to a senior BJP leader, Maharashtra BJP legislative party leader Devendra Fadnavis, who will take oath as chief minister for third time on Thursday, wants to take “clean and fresh” faces into his cabinet so that his government can deliver on the promises they have made during the election campaign.“Fadnavis is talking about Nav (new) Maharashtra under his leadership, therefore, he is very clear about whom to induct in his ministry. Besides, the central leadership of the BJP is also in favour of giving a clean and neat governance,” the senior BJP leader said. “In a meeting with Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and NCP leader Ajit Pawar, induction of clean and fresh faces as ministers was discussed. While Ajit Pawar was somewhat ready, Shinde argued that the BJP cannot dictate them as to whom to make a minister. Back-and-forth discussions are on over making a list of probable ministers,” he said.Another BJP leader said that disagreement on the list of the ministers has resulted in delay in deciding the swearing-in ceremony date. “Crime-tainted and corrupt ministers damage the image of the government. Keeping such people in the ministry not only impacts performance of the government but also electoral prospects. Therefore, the BJP leadership is very particular this time,” the leader said.“We have seen that during tenure from 2014 to 2019, Fadnavis did not hesitate to kick out leaders who indulged in corruption. Fadnavis does not want to repeat this in his next tenure. Therefore as a precautionary measure, the BJP leadership asked the alliance partners to give lists of leaders with clean image who will be sworn in as ministers. Ongoing deliberation on deciding cabinet members is a reason why the swearing-in ceremony of ministers will not take place on December 5 at Azad Maidan,” he added, requesting anonymity.Shiv Sena MLC Kiran Pawaskar confirmed the development, saying it is true that discussions are going on picking ministerial candidates who are not corrupt and tainted. “Our Shiv Sena is also on the page with BJP. We got a big victory so the government has a big responsibility,” Pawaskar said.After being elected as the legislature party leader, Fadnavis said that the thumping victory of the ruling Mahayuti alliance in the November 20 assembly elections was due to the mantra of ‘Ek hai toh safe hai’ given by PM Narendra Modi.
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