Ahead of the start of the Monsoon Session of the Maharashtra legislature, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will resort to a major expansion-cum-reshuffle on Friday.
In the first-ever ministry expansion being undertaken after the Shiv Sena joined the BJP-led saffron alliance Government on December 5, 2014, Fadnavis will in all likelihood induct into his Cabinet ten new ministers – six belonging to the BJP, three to Shiv Sena and one each to Raju Shetty-led Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana and Mahadev Jankar-headed Rashtriya Samaj Paksha.
The Cabinet expansion has been necessitated by the recent resignation of senior BJP minister Eknath Khadse, who had to quit over allegations of corruption, land-grab and links with the Karachi-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, and the fact that the chief minister has delayed such a re-jig of his ministry for nearly seven months. Fadnavis had attempted a Cabinet in December 2015 but dropped the plan at the last moment. Khadse had held as many 10 portfolios, including Revenue, Agriculture, Excise, Relief and Rehabilitation, Minority affairs, Waqf, Animal husbandry, Milk production, Fisheries and Earthquake rehabilitation. The swearing-in ceremony will take place at 9 am in the Central Hall of Maharashtra legislature on Friday.
The Chief Minister held consultations with two senior Shiv Sena ministers, Subhash Desai and Diwakar Raote, (who had been deputed for the purpose by Sena President Uddhav Thackeray, on the choice of their party nominees to be inducted into the Cabinet.
Informed sources in the BJP said here on Thursday evening that while senior party leader Pandurang Fundkar would make it to the Fadnavis in all probability, the other party men who might make it to the State Cabinet might include; Dr Sanjay Kunte, Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar, Jaykumar Rawal, Shivajirao Naik and Haribhau Jawale.