More than a month after Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde took oath as the chief minister of Maharashtra with Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy, the much-awaited expansion of the Cabinet is set to take place on Tuesday, 9 August, a senior state BJP leader said.
"The Cabinet expansion will take place tomorrow in Mumbai. I cannot divulge any details about it and who will be in the Cabinet," the senior BJP leader told PTI on Monday.
Reports on Sunday suggested that Fadnavis was likely to get the home ministry with at least 15 more members to be inducted into the Cabinet.
Reports further suggested that Gulabrao Patil, Uday Samant, Sanjay Shirsat, Dada Bhuse, and Sandipan Bhumre from the Shinde faction as well as Chandrakant Patil, Girish Mahajan, Vikhe Patil, and Sudhir Mungantiwar of the BJP could be a part of the state Cabinet.
Criticism Over Maharashtra's Two-Member Cabinet
Shinde and BJP's Fadnavis were sworn in on 30 June after the resignation of Uddhav Thackeray due to a rebellion within the ranks of the Shiv Sena party.
The duo had been functioning as a two-member Cabinet since then, inviting criticism from Opposition leaders.
Fadnavis and Shinde visited Delhi multiple times in the recent past over the issue of Cabinet expansion. However, Shinde missed the recent Delhi visit by Fadnavis to discuss the Cabinet expansion, citing health issues.
Shinde, last week, said that the state government's functioning had not been affected in any way due to the delay in the expansion of the Council of Ministers and that more ministers would be inducted soon.
Responding to former deputy CM Ajit Pawar's remarks over a two-member Cabinet for over a month, Fadnavis said: "Ajit Pawar is leader of the Opposition. He will have to say such things. Ajit dada conveniently forgets that when he was in the government there were just five ministers for the first 32 days."
(With inputs from PTI.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)