Mumbai: After more than a month of the Maharashtra government being managed by just two ministers — Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis — the state will finally get a larger cabinet Tuesday.
The government of the rebel Shiv Sena camp with the BJP will induct more ministers Tuesday at 11 am, an official from the state government confirmed.
CM Shinde and Deputy CM Fadnavis, it is learnt, hammered out the details at a meeting Monday, after which the former left for a tour of Nanded.
Government sources said Shinde will return to Mumbai at night and is expected to hold a meeting of MLAs from the rebel Shiv Sena camp who are likely to take oath Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Durbar Hall at the Raj Bhavan is being prepped for the event, a senior official from the governor’s office said.
The state government has also decided to hold the monsoon session of the state legislature from 10 August to 19 August.
The state legislative secretariat issued an order cancelling the public holiday for Muharram on 9 August for government employees under it, to prepare for the monsoon session scheduled at the eleventh hour. Having more than two ministers in the cabinet was essential for the government to smoothly conduct business in both houses of the legislature simultaneously and respond to questions and debates.
A senior MLA from the Shinde camp told ThePrint that “the discussions on how to split important portfolios between the two sides took some time”.
“Aspirations of many former ministers had to be accommodated. The CM and the deputy CM finalised the portfolio distribution at a meeting Monday,” the MLA said.
Earlier, leaders had also said that the two parties wanted to get clarity on which way the Supreme Court is likely to go in its ruling on a disqualification petition against rebel Sena MLAs by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.
The next hearing is on 12 August. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to not take any decision on who holds the right to the Shiv Sena symbol.
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Cabinet hopefuls
Shinde had rebelled against the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, comprising the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, with 39 Shiv Sena MLAs in June this year, causing the government to fall.
The Shinde-Fadnavis government took oath on 30 June, a day after former CM Uddhav Thackeray resigned from his post. However, they have been the only two ministers running the government so far, with CM Shinde finally having to take a day off Thursday complaining of exhaustion, and the state government giving quasi-judicial powers held by ministers to civil servants to manage the load.
The Sena rebel camp had nine MLAs who were ministers in the MVA government. Since they walked out of the government leaving ministerships behind, they are hoping to be compensated in the current government.
The BJP has 106 MLAs, including assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar, while the rebel Shiv Sena group under Shinde has 40 MLAs.
With the BJP having let go of the CM’s post despite having higher numbers, the party is likely to keep the high-profile home portfolio with itself, sources in the BJP said.
‘399 files cleared’
The Maharashtra government has maintained that the delay in cabinet expansion has not hampered governance in any manner, and all essential files are being cleared on priority.
A statement from the Chief Minister’s Office Monday said that CM Shinde has cleared 399 files since taking charge.
“These include files related to relief in natural calamities, relief for the needy, the agriculture department, new government appointments, recruitment, forest department, public health, medical education and so on,” the statement said.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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