Cabinet expansion soon in Maharashtra, says Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis

On June 30, Shinde and Fadnavis took oath of office after the formation of the new coalition government. The first cabinet expansion took place on August 9 when 18 ministers were sworn in with nine cabinet ministers each from the BJP and the Shinde camp of the Shiv Sena.

In Maharashtra, the permissible limit on the number of ministers is 43, which means there is scope to accommodate 23 new ministers. Indications are that in the coming expansion, 18 to 20 ministers would get berths. There is a possibility that two or three berths will be kept vacant as part of the strategy to satisfy inhouse aspirants who fail to make it to the cabinet this time as well as those who may defect from other parties.

The BJP is likely to get higher representation compared to the Shinde-led Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena in the coming expansion. Highly-placed sources in BJP said, “in the state Legislative Assembly, the strength of BJP is 105. The Shinde Sena’s strength is 50. Therefore, the number of BJP ministers in the cabinet will be more than that of Shinde Sena.”

At present, both the chief minister and the deputy chief minister have retained additional portfolios. Each of the 18 cabinet ministers also has more than one portfolio and is overburdened with work.

“The induction of new ministers will help in reducing the workload of existing ministers,” Fadnavis said.

Apart from Shinde, the nine other ministers from Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena currently in the cabinet are Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil, Uday Samant, Abdul Sattar, Sambhajiraje Desai, Sandipan Bhumre, Tanaji Sawant, Sanjay Rathod and Dadasaheb Bhuse.

Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Vijaykumar Gavit, Girish Mahajan, Atul Save, Ravindra Chavan, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Suresh Khade are the BJP ministers apart from Fadnavis.

The cabinet expansion will be a tightrope walk for Shinde. As the number of aspirants clearly outnumbers the berths. Moreover, there is possibility of portfolio reshuffle as some existing ministers are not happy with their departments, a senior minister in the Shinde camp said. Fadnavis also will not have it easy as the list of BJP leaders waiting to become ministers is not small either.

Another important decision high on the government’s agenda is to build pilgrimage corridors. Citing the example of the development of Varanasi corridor, Fadnavis said, “Maharashtra will also develop corridors which will help to boost tourism as well as aid in infrastructure development of the place.” Some of the pilgrimage centre’s on agenda are Pandharpur in Solapur, Mumba Devi in Mumbai, he added.