Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday met Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and discuss the proposed cabinet expansion of Maharashtra. Both the Chief Minister and Finance Minister in the last few days have clearly said that the Maharashtra Cabinet will be expanded.
“I met Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray at his residence Matoshri and discussed in detail cabinet expansion”, said Devendra Fadnavis in a tweet in Marathi.
शिवसेना पक्ष प्रमुख मा. उद्धव ठाकरेजी यांची आज मातोश्री येथे भेट घेतली आणि मंत्रिमंडळ विस्तारासंदर्भात विस्तृत चर्चा केली.
— Devendra Fadnavis (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Dev_Fadnavis) June 14, 2019
If speculations to be believed Cainbet expansion could be possible on Sunday, a day before the start of 17th Lok Sabha Session. Responding on a similar query by a scribe, Shiv Sena Chief skipped the question saying that he has no details about when the cabinet expansion would take place.
Currently, the Maharashtra Cabinet has a vacancy of 5 ministers and have 37 ministers including the chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The death of BJP MLA Pandurang Fundkar, who was an agriculture minister, in 2018 has created a vacancy. The portfolio is currently being handled by revenue minister Chandrakant Patil. While another vacancy was created with the resignation of Deepak Sawant, the then Health Minister.
While Parliamentary Affairs and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Girish Bapat quit the Assembly after being elected to the 17th Lok Sabha from Pune.
In the state cabinet led by CM Devendra Fadnavis, the BJP has 16 cabinet ministers and 7 ministers of state (MoS), while Shiv Sena has five cabinet ministers and only one MoS. Other smaller allies have one cabinet and MoS post each.
In the recently held national polls, Bharatiya Janata Party along with its ally Shiv Sena swept Maharashtra by bagging 41 seats out of the total 48 Lok Sabha Seats on the state.
NCP–Congress alliance faced a humiliating defeat by the BJP–Shiv Sena combine. In the state that sends 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha Polls, NCP-Congress could only bag 5 Lok Sabha Seats with NCP winning 4 seats while one seat won by the Indian National Congress.
ALSO READ:
- Andhra CM Jagan Mohan Reddy meets Governor ESL Narasimhan ahead of a joint session
- Telangana CM KCR to meet Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis; to invite for Kaleshwaram Inauguration
- Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat to attend NITI Aayog Council meet on June 15