Pune: Student Protesters Demand Exclusion of Four MLAs from Mahayuti Government Cabinet

Pune, 13th December 2024: Twenty days have passed since the Mahayuti government came to power in Maharashtra. In this government, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar have taken oath as ministers and are running the state.

However, while everyone is waiting to see when the ministerial posts for other departments will be announced and which leaders in this Mahayuti government will be appointed to the cabinet, student organisations have protested in front of the Pune District Collector’s Office. They demanded that four MLAs from the Mahayuti government—Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena group MLA Sanjay Rathod, MLA Abdul Sattar, MLA Tanaji Sawant, and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Nitesh Rane—not be given ministerial posts. The protesters also raised strong slogans against them.

At the protest, Akshay Kamble stated that in the previous government, Abdul Sattar was accused of corruption worth thousands of crores in the education department, while Tanaji Sawant faced allegations of corruption in the health department. Additionally, Sanjay Rathod had to resign from his ministerial post due to his involvement in the case of a young woman’s death.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Nitesh Rane has been making statements that stir division in society. Kamble warned that if the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Ministers do not exclude these four MLAs from the cabinet, student organisations will protest on a larger scale in the future.