Maharashtra Cabinet Expansion News: Over a week after the breakaway faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) joined the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra, the issue of portfolio allocation between all three parties seems to have finally resolved, with cabinet expansion likely by Thursday evening or Friday.
“Portfolio allocation will be done tomorrow,” said Sanjay Shirsat, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-lead Shiv Sena faction leader.
“No problem with any portfolios given to anyone. There are no problems even if finance is given to Ajit Pawar. Cabinet expansion will be done soon,” he added.
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▶According to a PTI report, amidst the tussle over portfolio allocation, NCP has been insisting on finance and water resources portfolios, which the Shiv Sena is learnt to have opposed. While talking to reporters on Wednesday night, rebel NCP leader Praful Patel said there would be some issues in the allocation of portfolios. “Now each of them will have to give up some portfolios to accommodate us,” he said.
▶Maharashtra’s second Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has arrived at Sagar bungalow to meet Devendra Fadnavis ahead of cabinet expansion which is likely to take place by today evening or tomorrow.
▶Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar left CM Eknath Shinde’s official residence Varsha bungalow after a brief meeting today.
▶Meanwhile, Maharashtra NCP President Sunil Tatkare had earlier said that by Thursday evening, the party’s ministers in the government would be allocated portfolios and the three parties will continue to march ahead in full steam.
▶Nine leaders of NCP – Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse-Patil, Dhananjay Munde, Hasan Mushrif, Dharmababa Atram, Aditi Tatkare, Sanjay Bansode, and Anil Patil were sworn-in as Ministers on July 2.
▶This week, they were allotted their official residences, offices in Mantralaya, and other requirements – barring their ministerial responsibilities.
▶Amid the tussle of cabinet berths between Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP, the new Deputy CM along with Rajya Sabha MP Praful Patel and party leader Hasan Mushrif visited Delhi on Wednesday to meet the BJP leadership and finalise the portfolio allocation.
▶Political speculation pointed at the NCP was eyeing certain key portfolios like finance, agriculture, rural development, energy, etc, which are currently divided among the Shiv Sena-BJP ministers for the past 11 months, each having an armful of departments.
▶However, the two parties were apparently reluctant to part with their plum departments, leading to behind-the-curtain friction among the MLAs of the new entrant, NCP.
▶The surprise entry of NCP has led to many heart-burns among the ministerial hopefuls of the Shiv Sena-BJP and the independent group supporting the government for the past 13 months.
▶Pawar was the finance minister in the CM Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. In 2022, when Shinde and his 40 MLAs parted ways with the Thackeray-led Sena, one of the reasons cited was Pawar did not give them funds easily, while NCP MLAs always got the first preference.
▶Maharashtra can have a maximum of 43 cabinet ministers. As of now, 29 of these positions have been filled and the list of ministerial aspirants has grown lengthier. “It would be a very difficult task for CM Shinde to choose the cabinet ministers. There is a chance that he may consider factors like caste while picking MLAs for cabinet berths, the way Ajit Pawar has tried to give representation to OBC, SC-ST, and minorities while selecting MLAs who had taken oath as cabinet ministers with him,” said a senior leader from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
(With IANS Inputs)
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