After weeks of hectic parleys over the Chief Minister chair and then the ‘who-gets-what-ministry’, the new BJP-led government in Maharashtra is all set to expand its Cabinet today. The BJP, which holds the highest share of Cabinet berths, will likely induct 19 MLAs, including three women leaders, sources said.

The list of probable BJP leaders are:

Pankaja Munde

Meghna Bordikar

Madhuri Misal

Chandrashekhar Bawankule

Nitesh Rane

Shivendra Raje Bhosle

Chandrakant Patil

Pankaj Bhoir

Mangal Prabhat Lodha

Girish Mahajan

Jayakumar Rawal

Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil

Ganesh Naik

Atul Save

Aakash Fundkar

Ashok Uike

Jayakumar More

Sanjay Savkare

Ashish Shelar

According to sources, Maharashtra may have 40 ministers in its new Cabinet, with 50 per cent of new and young faces likely to be inducted. The council of ministers in the state can have a maximum of 43 members, including the Chief Minister.

While former Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena may get around 12 Cabinet seats, Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) may get 10 seats, sources. At least six new leaders from the Shiv Sena are likely to take oath as ministers – Pratap Sarnaik, Prakash Abitkar, Sharat Gogavale, Yogesh Kadam, Ashish Jaiswal, and Sanjay Shirsat.

Mr Shinde’s Sena faction is believed to want the Home portfolio, which was previously held by Devendra Fadnavis. However, the BJP is unlikely to give it up and keep it to themselves, sources said. The Sena may be offered Urban Development, Public Works Department, and Revenue.

The Cabinet expansion will take place today at 4 pm in Nagpur.

In the November 20 assembly elections, the Mahayuti won 230 out of 288 seats in the state. While the BJP secured 132 seats, the Sena bagged 57 and NCP got 41 seats. On December 5, Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra with former Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and NCP leader Ajit Pawar as his deputies.

The Mahayuti alliance had also come under fire from the opposition for not naming its Cabinet for weeks despite having an overwhelming majority.

Ahead of the Cabinet expansion, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis held a roadshow in Nagpur. He was accompanied by his wife Amruta Fadnavis and state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule.

“Nagpur city is my family and my family is welcoming me,” he said during the roadshow.

Mumbai:

Reeling off numbers, veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday aimed to puncture the ruling Maharashtra coalition’s claim that the financial capital of the country remains the foremost destination for attracting highest number of investments.

“We can’t look at one parameter and say Maharashtra is doing well. It is a number of parameters over a period of time to decide whether the state is growing or sliding. I have with me data which shows that the growth of the state GDP has declined from 2022-2023 to 2023-2024. Similarly, revenue deficit has ballooned, fiscal deficit has ballooned, agricultural growth, services sector growth, transport, trade, communications growth and construction growth have all fallen sharply as much as 3% to 7-8%,” the former Union Finance Minister, in Mumbai ahead of the state polls, told NDTV.

Maharashtra goes to polls on November 20. The votes will be counted on November 23.

“The GEP (Gross Ecosystem Product) itself has declined from 9.4% to 7.6%. If this is the path Maharashtra is economy is going in, how can you say that Maharashtra is growing economically,” Mr Chidambaram asked.

Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) is an index that measures the economic value of nature’s contributions to human well-being. It is modeled after the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is used to help achieve sustainable development by moving beyond conventional economic measures.

“We are only talking about economically. It is not growing. It is slipping and as a result of that there’s massive unemployment,” he said.

Asserting that talk of the state facing a “mountain of debt” was a myth, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said Maharashtra’s economy is worth Rs 40 lakh crore, of which just Rs 6-6.5 lakh crore constitutes debt.

Asked about the ruling coalition and its $1 trillion economy promise for Maharashtra, Mr Chidambaram underlined that the important question to ask is “when”, adding that without a set timeframe it is a “meaningless statement”.

“$1 trillion is a goalpost. As meaningless as the Union of India’s goalpost of $5trillion. You will reach the goalpost whether there’s a government or not. Whether you grow at 3% or 5% or 8% or 10%. If you grow, you will reach the goalpost,” said the 79-year-old Congress leader.

Elaborating on it, the Congress leader said if you go from Mumbai to Pune, you will reach Pune whether you fly or drive or go in a bullock cart or go on a cycle or go walking. The point, said the Congress leader, is when.

“The central government has shifted the $5trillion goalpost 3-4 times. Now it is somewhere in 2026-2027 or 2027-2028. If anybody claims I will reach $1trllion, you must say when. They don’t say when. It’s like saying my child will grow to 3 feet. Every child will grow to 3 feet. My child will grow to 4 feet, of course a 3-foot high child will grow to 4 feet . It’s a meaningless statement,” said Mr Chidambaram.

On Friday, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw slammed the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, saying that it is an ‘aghadi’ that stops ‘vikas’ (development). He also claimed that only the BJP and Mahyuti government can make Maharashtra a one trillion-dollar economy.

Mumbai:

Maharashtra BJP MLA Nitesh Rane has stoked a controversy with his provocative speeches in which he allegedly threatened to hit Muslims, leading police to book him on Monday on charges of hurting religious sentiments.

The opposition immediately latched on to the speeches of Nitesh Rane, son of former Union minister Narayan Rane, after they went viral and hit out at the ruling BJP, asserting the saffron party wants to engineer riots ahead of the state assembly polls due in November.

On his part, BJP Lok Sabha MP Narayan Rane, himself no stranger to controversies, got into damage control mode and sought to calm frayed nerves, saying he has chided his son over the remarks.

Nitesh Rane addressed two public meetings in Shrirampur and Topkhana areas in Ahmednagar district on Sunday in support of Hindu seer Mahant Ramgiri Maharaj, who was in the news last month for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Islam and Prophet Muhammad.

The MLA warned there would be repercussions if the Maharaj was harmed.

Ramgiri Maharaj has been accused of making derogatory comments about Prophet Mohammad and Islam. Cases have been registered against him at many places in Maharashtra and Muslim leaders have been demanding his arrest.

An official said two FIRs (first information reports) have been registered against Nitesh Rane at Shrirampur and Topkhana police stations in Ahmednagar district, around 260km from Mumbai, for criminal intimidation, intentionally insulting to breach peace and hurting religious sentiments.

The case at Topkhana police station was registered at around 11 pm on Sunday, while another offence was registered at the Shrirampur police station in the early hours of Monday.

Nitesh Rane is not new to controversies. Known for his rustic remarks, he was booked for allegedly making hate speeches in Malvani, Mankhurd and Ghatkopar areas of Mumbai earlier this year.

After the uproar, Nitesh Rane’s father Narayan Rane, the MP from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg in coastal Konkan, said he has reprimanded his son and told him not to drag any religion in the matter.

“There is no need to drag any religion but only those who are guilty of it. Not all Muslims are guilty of this, so don’t drag the entire community. I have reprimanded him,” Narayan Rane said.

Sharing Nitesh Rane’s video, AIMIM spokesperson Waris Pathan, in a post on X, requested Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the home portfolio, to arrest the BJP legislator.

“Rane is spreading hatred against Muslims in his entire speech. This is inflammatory speech, hate speech. The BJP is trying to create communal violence in Maharashtra before the state assembly elections,” Pathan alleged.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut also slammed the BJP, his party’s former ally. “You (the BJP) want riots in Maharashtra to win polls. Until they don’t engineer riots they cannot face polls,” opined the Rajya Sabha member.

Raut’s party colleague and Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said politicians are fuelling violence rather than upholding the state’s ethos, in an apparent reference to the provocative speeches made by Nitesh Rane.

A delegation of Mumbai Congress leaders led by its president Varsha Gaikwad met police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar and sought action against the Kankavli MLA and other BJP leaders for making provocative statements.

The Congress delegation also demanded that the police security of Nitesh Rane and other BJP leaders be withdrawn.

“Inflammatory statements are made in Maharashtra and everyone knows that they enjoy (political) patronage. They keep saying our boss sits in ‘Sagar’ bungalow,” Gaikwad told reporters.

‘Sagar’ is the official bungalow of Deputy CM Fadnavis.

“The statement made by Nitesh Rane and (BJP MLC) Prasad Lad have reference to Sagar bungalow and Devendra Fadnavis Ji. It has to be probed whether they have any political patronage,” she said.

NCP (SP) spokesperson Anish Gawande said Nitesh Rane’s statements were not a one-off incident, adding the rot runs deeper.

“Contempt cases should be filed against the Maharashtra government itself for violations of the Tehseen Poonawala judgment on mob lynching and hate speech. Enough is enough,” Gawande asserted.

The Shiv Sena (UBT), the Congress and the NCP (SP) are constituents of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The ruling Mahayuti coalition consists of the BJP, the NCP and the Shiv Sena. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)