Finally, the decks have been cleared for the expansion of the Maharashtra government’s cabinet in Nagpur on Sunday. The final list of cabinet ministers, which was sent to the central leadership in Delhi for approval, was cleared on Saturday night.
“The Council of Ministers will expand at 4 pm on Sunday,” said a high source of Mahayuti.
The Council of Ministers is expanding ahead of the winter session that will begin in Nagpur from Monday.
Accordingly, Governor PC Radhakrishnan has been informed and the protocol office of the state government has also been activated to prepare for the swearing-in of ministers.
“Hesitation over portfolio sharing between the three ruling parties BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP continued till Saturday evening,” a source said.
The Cabinet composition is as follows: BJP can get 21 (including the Chief Minister), Shiv Sena 12 (including the Deputy Chief Minister) and NCP 10 (including the Deputy Chief Minister).
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will retain the high-profile home portfolio, a bone of contention between the BJP and the Shiv Sena. Despite the Shiv Sena’s pressure, the BJP’s central leadership stuck to its stand and rejected their demands. Instead, the BJP willingly conceded the key portfolio of urban development to the Shiv Sena. Another important portfolio, which embroiled the three partners in a power struggle, was finance. However, after a long discussion for the past 20 days, the BJP has agreed to give it to the NCP.
A senior BJP leader, requesting anonymity, said, “Fadnavis and Shinde A meeting in Mumbai on Friday night helped resolve differences over the cabinet allocation formula.
Apart from power tussles with alliance partners, the BJP also faced challenges from within the party as the number of candidates exceeded the number of seats. Among the reasons for the delay in cabinet expansion was the BJP’s tough move to shortlist its ministerial candidates.
A former BJP minister said, “We have many problems. In the assembly elections, BJP emerged as the single largest party winning 132 seats. Although we will have the maximum number of cabinet ministers, our share will not be more than 21 (including the Chief Minister). The party has 36 strong candidates who can become ministers based on their merit. Considering the limitations in the coalition government, it is known that the party can have only 21 ministers. This means that the BJP has to compromise on both seats and portfolios despite good results.
The challenges before Shinde were many as he not only had to personally climb from Chief Minister to Deputy Chief Minister but also had to fight for dozens of Cabinet berths. Shiv Sena won 57 seats in the assembly elections. Its strength increased from 40 seats in June 2022 when the original party led by Uddhav Thackeray exited.
While Ajit Pawar made concerted efforts to seek more seats and important portfolios there were limitations. However, according to the source, he managed to take charge of the Ministry of Finance.
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