Even though the Constitution doesn’t mention deputy chief minister’s post, it is the most sought after in the present political milieu.
In the newly formed governments in four states, there are seven deputy chief ministers, taking their number to 24 across 14 states. This is the highest number of deputy CMs at a time. Although a deputy chief minister is equivalent to a Cabinet minister in the state government, the post means that the person is second-in-command after the chief minister. However, the rationale and the political compulsion behind the post vary from state to state and party to party.
Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of deputy CMs, with one each from five dominating communities – minority, OBC, SC, ST and Kapu. By having five deputies, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government has tried to give representation to each community that holds significance in the state. In 2022, Jagan reshuffled his Cabinet and barring Amzath Basha Shaik Bepari, he replaced the other four deputy CMs.
A similar arrangement has been made by BJP and Congress governments after the recent assembly polls. In Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, BJP has opted for two deputy CMs each. In MP, a Brahmin and a leader from the SC community has been inducted as deputy CMs while the CM is an OBC. In Rajasthan, a Rajput and a Dalit have been made deputy CMs while the CM is a Brahmin. In Chhattisgarh, a Brahmin and an OBC have been made deputy CMs while the CM is a tribal.
In Telangana, Congress has a chief minister from the Reddy community and a deputy chief minister from the SC community.
BJP did similar caste balancing in UP where the party continued with two deputy CMs – a Brahmin and another from OBC community – while the CM is a Thakur (Rajput).
In Karnataka, after Congress won the assembly elections earlier this year, it was an uphill task for the party high command to resolve the leadership issue between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar. After almost a week, the high command devised a formula to keep both factions happy. Shivakumar was named deputy CM of the state, with Siddaramaiah becoming the CM. A similar formula was adopted by Congress in Himachal Pradesh last year to strike a balance between two senior leaders Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and Mukesh Agnihotri. Sukhu was named CM while Agnihotri became deputy CM.
Running a coalition government is also one of the criteria for appointing a deputy chief minister. When two parties join hands to form a government and since there could be only one chief minister in a state, another party gets deputy chief minister’s post to show that they are equal partners and this agreement has been working very well in some states.
In Bihar, when Nitish Kumar’s JDU and RJD came together in August last year, the post of deputy chief minister was given to Tejashwi Yadav with four plum portfolios. Nitish Kumar remained the chief minister of the state. In Maharashtra, BJP has worked out a formula where there are two deputy chief ministers, each from BJP and the Ajit Pawar faction of NCP. First it was a government led by Eknath Shinde of Shiv Sena and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis became the deputy chief minister with all the key portfolios. In July this year, Ajit Pawar with a few NCP MLAs also joined the government and became the deputy chief minister.
(Courtesy: The Economic Times)