Constitutional Quandary or Political Strategy? The Secret Surge of Deputy Chief Ministers Grips India’s Political Landscape!

Deputy Chief Ministers in India: The Grand Alliance government fell in Bihar just two days ago and a new NDA coalition government was formed. Two Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Sinha took oath as Deputy Chief Ministers. 

In this way, there are now a total of 26 Deputy Chief Ministers in 14 states of India. The highest number is in Andhra Pradesh. Here five leaders have been given the post of Deputy Chief Minister. In some states there are 2 Deputy Chief Ministers and in some states there are 1 Deputy CM. 

The strange thing is that nowhere in the Constitution it is said that it is mandatory to have the post of Deputy Chief Minister or Deputy Prime Minister in any state. Not only this, nothing has been said about these posts in the Constitution. 

In such a situation, the question arises that when there is no mention of this post in the Constitution, then why is there a race to make Deputy CM in all the states?

There is no mention of the post of Deputy CM in the country’s constitution

Supreme Court advocate Virag Gupta said, there is a provision in the Constitution of the country in Article 164 regarding the Chief Ministers and Ministers of the states. But nothing has been said about the Deputy Chief Minister. Even this post is not mentioned anywhere. 

He further said that the Deputy Chief Minister of a state can look only at the department or ministry given by the CM. Not only this, the salary, other allowances and facilities of the Deputy Chief Minister are equal to that of a Cabinet Minister.

He told that the post of Deputy Chief Minister started after the creation of the post of Deputy Prime Minister.

Now understand why Deputy Chief Minister is made, in 3 points 

In fact, in any state the Deputy Chief Minister is not responsible for any work which has to be done only by him. The leadership of the state government is in the hands of the Chief Minister. The post of Deputy Chief Minister is just a symbolic post, which has been created so that everyone knows that the leader of this post holds the number-2 status in that state. 

Apart from this, many times one or two Deputy Chief Ministers are made to solve caste equations. In many states, just to satisfy a leader, he is given the post of Deputy Chief Minister. 

If understood in simple language, the post of Deputy Chief Minister of any state can be important for that party, but whether this post exists in any state or not does not make much difference. 

1. Use of this post also to end differences within the party 

Many times parties also use this term to reduce or calm down the ongoing differences within themselves. For example, just look at the Karnataka Assembly elections. Congress had won in Karnataka. But after this, the biggest challenge before Rahul Gandhi was to strike a balance between two senior leaders Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar. 

Both are powerful leaders of the state and both of them had staked claim to the post of CM. Not only this, there was rivalry going on within the party for a long time for the post of CM.

In such a situation, Congress came out with a formula to make both of them happy. Under which DK Shivakumar was given the post of Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka and Siddaramaiah was given the post of Chief Minister. 

Similarly, Congress adopted the same formula in Himachal Pradesh and made two senior leaders Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and Mukesh Agnihotri, one the Chief Minister and the other the Deputy Chief Minister. 

2. Use of position to maintain caste balance

Recently assembly elections were held in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. BJP had won in this. Two Deputy Chief Ministers each were made in all three states. Of these two Deputy Chief Ministers in Madhya Pradesh, one is from Brahmin caste and the other is from SC community. Whereas the Chief Minister himself is from OBC community.  

Similarly, in Rajasthan, Bharatiya Janata Party gave the post of CM to a Brahmin, while the post of Deputy Chief Minister was given to a Rajput and a Dalit community leader.  

In Chhattisgarh also, the Bharatiya Janata Party made a leader from the tribal community the Chief Minister and one leader each from the OBC-Brahmin community was given the post of Deputy Chief Minister. 

Under this formula, the Chief Minister in Telangana was made from the Reddy community and the post of Deputy Chief Minister was given to the SC community. 

3. The post of Deputy CM is very important in the coalition government

When a coalition government comes to power in any state, this post becomes very important. If understood in simple language, when two different parties come together and form a government, then the leader of one party is made the Chief Minister and the leader of the other party is given the post of Deputy CM. 

This makes it easier to understand who are the most prominent leaders of both the parties and that both the parties are equal partners in the government. 

Take Bihar for example. Here when JDU and RJD came together, Tejashwi Yadav got the post of Deputy Chief Minister and Nitish Kumar was the Chief Minister. Similarly, on January 28, 2024, when Nitish Kumar once again formed the government with BJP, he himself remained on the post of CM and BJP leaders were given the post of Deputy Chief Minister. 

Like Bihar, a similar formula was adopted in Maharashtra. At present, Eknath Shinde from Shiv Sena is holding the post of Chief Minister. One leader each from BJP and NCP faction is Deputy CM. 

How powerful is this verse?

Although in the state government, the Deputy Chief Minister has the same power as the Cabinet Minister, but being the Deputy CM of any state means that that person is second only to the Chief Minister. 

How many deputy CMs can there be in a state

According to Article 164 of the Constitution, every state will have a Chief Minister. There is no mention of the post of Deputy CM in the Constitution. In such a situation, the party can keep as many leaders as it wants on this post.