The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combination, which hardly encountered any signs of anti-incumbency despite a decade long-rule on
the trot in the state, has received a boost with several exit polls indicating that the Democratic Front could notch the required numbers for a fresh term. While the contestants wait with bated breath for the counting on October 22, the suspense is excruciating for some sitting MLAs who virtually entered a race for ministerial berth even before the vote was cast.
Sources in the Congress said the party was hopeful that the chief minister's post would remain with it as it looked set for winning the largest number of seats this time. The crucial question then would be who the new chief minister will be. Names of stalwarts like former CMs Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and Narayan Rane are already making the rounds in the corridors of power and the chances of Ashok Chavan getting a fresh term look remote.
Chavan was always seen as a stop-gap incumbent after taking over from Deshmukh in December last year. As per the party tradition, the party high command may decide names of the new ministers.
If the Congress-NCP calculations work out for retaining power, the focus would shift to how many aspirants from the city and Vidarbha find ministerial berths. Anees Ahmed's chances of retaining a cabinet berth looks bright if he manages to win from his changed constituency of Nagpur West.
The minister for textiles and sports is known to be close to party president Sonia Gandhi's political advisor Ahmed Patel and Union minister for social justice Mukul Wasnik. If Ahmed scrapes through, his good friend Satish Chaturvedi, despite his seniority, may have to sit out. Chaturvedi, incidentally, was a minister in the Deshmukh cabinet but failed to find one under Chavan.
Nitin Raut, on other hand, will be eyeing a cabinet berth by playing the Dalit card. The last time he had publicly expressed his displeasure on being denied cabinet post and after a sulk accepted to be a junior minister.
City MP Vilas Muttemwar firmly believes that his three candidates in the fray - Vikas Thakre from Nagpur West, Dr Raju Deoghare from Central and Dinanath Padole from South were certain to win. He would surely be seeking a cabinet berth for at least one of them.
Deoghare stands a good chance because of his educational qualifications and the fact that he is from the Bunkar (weaver) community. The party has given a chance to someone from this community after a long time and Deoghare has few rivals in the party. Earlier, PM Dekate and Shravan Parate, both Bunkars who represented Umred seat, were also given ministerial berths for the community's support.