More than five weeks after he was sworn into office along with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will expand his Cabinet on Tuesday by inducting “anywhere from 12 to 15 ministers” from both his faction of the Shiv Sena and the BJP.
Hamstrung hitherto by the uncertainty arising out of the pending cases in the Supreme Court over the disqualification of the rebel Sena MLAs and other constitutional issues involving the formation of his Government in the State, Shinde has finally decided to bite the bullet by opting for his first Cabinet expansion ahead of a ruling in the litigation in the apex court.
Under pressure from the BJP and his own camp MLAs, Shinde and Fadnavis had attempted to expand the State Cabinet on at least five occasions. However, they had shelved the plans owing to the developments in the Supreme Court or due to the fear of being reprimanded by the apex court for showing haste in the formation of a full-fledged State Cabinet in the pendency of the litigation before it.
However, on Monday, Shinde gave indications of a possible Cabinet expansion on Tuesday, when media persons buttonholed him for a comment during his tour of Nanded district in Marathwada region. “A cabinet expansion will happen very soon. The names of his new ministers will be finalised either tonight or tomorrow,” Shinde said, while replying to a query.
While it looks certain that at least 12 new ministers — six ministers each from the Shinde and BJP camps — will be inducted into the State Cabinet on Tuesday, one should not be surprised if the number of ministers finding a berth in the State goes up to 15, seven from the Shinde camp and eight from the BJP.
The six senior BJP leaders likely to be inducted in to the State Cabinet are Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Pravin Darekar, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and Ganesh Naik, while leaders from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena camp will comprise Dada Bhuse, Uday Samat, Gulabrao Patil, Shamburaje Bhosale, Deepak Kesarkar and Sada Sarvankar. In addition to these 12 ministers, Shinde may induct an independent MLA Bachhu Kadu in his Cabinet.
In addition to the names of ministers who will in all likelihood make it to the State Cabinet, the names of more ministerial aspirants were making rounds in the state capital on Monday night, hours before the much-anticipated Cabinet expansion.
Shinde — who has faced severe criticism from the Opposition for having failed to form a full-fledged State Cabinet more than five weeks after swearing into office as the chief minister — has chosen to expand his Cabinet ahead of the monsoon session of the State Legislature, slated to get underway on August 10.
Given that there will be very little time for him to allocate the portfolios for the newly elected ministers, Shinde may postpone the start of the budget session from August 10 to August 17, by when he expects his ministers to get acclimatised to the new portfolios that they will be vested with after the Cabinet expansion slated for Tuesday.