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Two Deputy CMs are being made in Maharashtra. With this there will be a total of 26 Deputy Chief Ministers in the country. At present there are Deputy CMs in 16 states of the country. Of these, 9 states have 2 Deputy Chief Ministers each and seven states have one Deputy Chief Minister each.
With the appointment of Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar as Deputy Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, the number of Deputy Chief Ministers in the country will touch the figure of 26. For the first time in the country, he became Deputy Chief Minister in 16 states. Along with Congress, BJP, smaller parties are also ahead in making Deputy CM. That too when there is no mention of this post in the Constitution of India.
2-2 Deputy CMs are working in 9 states. This includes big states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra. In Tamil Nadu, the father is the Chief Minister and the son is the Deputy Chief Minister.
Mention only of Chief Minister and Minister
The Republic of India currently consists of 28 states and 3 union territories, which are governed by elected governments. Article 164 of the Constitution provides for the formation of the State Government. According to this, the Governor selects the leader of the majority legislature as the Chief Minister and then selects the Cabinet on the advice of the Chief Minister. There is no mention of Deputy CM in this article of the Constitution. This is why the salary, other allowances and facilities of the Deputy Chief Minister are the same as that of a Cabinet Minister. The Deputy Chief Minister also takes oath as a Cabinet Minister and then on the recommendation of the Chief Minister, the Governor confers the status of Deputy Chief Minister on him.
Who can become Deputy CM?
Any person who is eligible to become a minister can hold the post of Deputy CM. In some states only MLAs can become ministers, while in some states members of the Legislative Council are also made ministers. There is no mention of how many Deputy CMs can be made. In Andhra Pradesh, Jaganmohan Reddy made a total of 5 Deputy CMs in his government. At some places there are two CMs and at other places there is one Deputy CM. However, the format of the cabinet is fixed. In states other than Union Territories, only 15 percent of the total MLAs can become ministers. For example, if a state has 80 assembly seats, then there can be a total of 12 ministers in that state, including the Chief Minister.
Deputy CM is considered a senior minister. In the absence of the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister chairs the Cabinet. When Siddaramaiah was embroiled in the Muda scam, a cabinet was called under the chairmanship of Deputy CM DK Shivakumar for matters related to it.
How many Deputy CMs in which state?
Pawan Kalyan in Andhra Pradesh, Chauna Meen in Arunachal, Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Sinha in Bihar, Arun Sau and Vijay Sharma in Chhattisgarh, Mukesh Agnihotri in Himachal, Surendra Choudhary in Jammu and Kashmir, DK Shivkumar in Karnataka.
Similarly, Jagdish Deora and Rajendra Shukla in Madhya Pradesh, P Taisong and S Dhar in Meghalaya, Y Pat and Tia Zeliang in Nagaland, K Singh Deo and Parvati Parida in Odisha, Prem Bairwa and Diya Kumari in Rajasthan, Udhayanidhi Stalin in Tamil Nadu. Keshav Prasad Maurya in Telangana and B. Vikram Mark Pathak in Uttar Pradesh are also Deputy Chief Ministers.
Why was he made Deputy CM, 3 points
1. Solving the caste equation- In every state from North to South, at least 4-5 castes are numerically and socially more vocal. If the government is formed, the party can make a person from the same caste the Chief Minister. In such a situation, Deputy CM is made to help other castes.
For example, in Rajasthan, Jats, Gurjars, Dalits, Meenas, Thakurs and Brahmins have their voice politically. Their number is also more. If the government is formed in 2023, BJP has handed over the post of CM to Bhajanlal Sharma, who comes from the Brahmin community.
To woo his main constituent Thakurs, Diya Kumari was made Deputy CM. Premchandra Bairwa also got the post of Deputy Chief Minister for helping the Dalits.
Similarly, in Madhya Pradesh, BJP made Mohan Yadav, who comes from OBC community, the Chief Minister, while to help the Dalits, the party made Jagdish Deora the Deputy CM. Brahmins are also major voters of BJP and Rajendra Shukla also became the Deputy CM.
2. To solve the combination equation- Deputy CMs are also being made to solve the alliance equation. Like there are 3 parties in the government in Maharashtra. In such a situation, the Chief Minister may be from the same party, due to which the post of Deputy CM is given to other parties to show their strong stake in the government.
There is a similar equation in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar also. In Bihar, JDU’s Nitish Kumar is the Chief Minister while BJP’s Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Sinha have got the post of Deputy CM.
Similarly, in Andhra, Chandrababu Naidu of TDP is the Chief Minister and Pawan Kalyan of Jana Sena is the Deputy Chief Minister.
3. Check and balance policy is also a reason – One reason for making Deputy CM is the check and balance policy. After coming into government, parties appoint Deputy CMs to keep their leaders comfortable.
For example, when BJP government came to power in UP in 2017, Yogi Adityanath got the post of Chief Minister. To woo the then state president Keshav Prasad Maurya, BJP had given him the post of Deputy Chief Minister.
Similarly, in Karnataka also, Congress had handed over the post of Chief Minister to Siddaramaiah in 2023. After Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar, who was leading in the race for the post of CM, got the post of Deputy CM.
When did the first Deputy CM become in India?
Anugrah Narayan Singh of Bihar became the first Deputy CM of independent India. He remained in this post till 1956. After this he was made the Deputy CM of Haryana. After 1990, the tradition of making Deputy CM started in the country. Sushil Kumar Modi of Bihar held the post of Deputy CM for the longest period. Modi remained Deputy CM for about 10 years.