Mumbai:
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is going ahead with his cabinet expansion today — more than three weeks after the assembly election results were declared. The ministers are taking oath at a grand programme in Nagpur — his constituency. Maharashtra can have a maximum of 43 ministers. Thirty-nine are expected to take oath today.
Mr Fadnavis is attending the programme at the Raj Bhavan in Nagpur along with Mr Shinde and Mr Pawar.
Among the ministers who have taken oath so far are the BJP’s Atul Save, Ashok Uike, Ashish Shelar, Shivendrasinh Bhosale and Jaykumar Gore, Shiv Sena’s Shambhuraj Desai, NCP’s Dattatray Bharne, Aditi Tatkare, Manikrao Kokate, Narhari Zirwal.
On December 5, Mr Fadnavis had taken oath as the Chief Minister and Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar as his deputies at a programme in Mumbai that was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, other BJP stalwarts and allies.
The delay in the cabinet expansion was fallout of the tussle over portfolios.
While former Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had to settle for the post of Mr Fadnavis’s Deputy this time, his party had been hoping to skim off the cream of the portfolios, including the home ministry, which the BJP was unwilling to accept.
Ever since Mr Fadnavis became Chief Minister for the first time, he has been handling the home portfolio. He handled it even when Mr Shinde was the Chief Minister.
