Cabinet expansion postponed

Despite raising expectations among aspirants from BJP, Shiv Sena and smaller alliance partners, the expansion of the state Cabinet has been put on hold on chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ instructions. Sources in the BJP said that the Delhi leadership has given its go ahead but the CM is not keen on filling up the 12 vacant posts yet.

“The party leadership in Delhi has approved the expansion but the chief minister is reluctant to expand the Cabinet at present,” a senior BJP minister who was also involved in the expansion process said, requesting anonymity. This postponement has upset BJP’s alliance partners RPI (A), Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana and Rashtriya Samaj Paksha and Shiv Sangram. Also, BJP minister Chandrakant Patil had informally informed the media that 10 ministers would be inducted into the Cabinet this time.

However, the chief minister has not declared his final decision yet and a section of politicians have put the blame on Shiv Sena as it had been demanding more berths in the Cabinet. But the Sena ministers said otherwise. “It is not our problem. We never asked for expansion in the first place. It was all started by the BJP because they have too many aspirants in the party. Also, they will have to share berths with the smaller parties that had extended their support during elections. But the CM is scared that an expansion at this moment will hurt the BJP aspirants and he wants to avoid internal politics,” a Shiv Sena minister said.

Besides, due to the stalling, the BJP MLAs who were in the race to get ministerial berths have been left disappointed. “All the party leaders had assured me that I would be inducted in the first Cabinet expansion but now it has been put on hold. There are 12 vacant posts and a few could have been filled up as the government has completed one year in office. The BJP seems to have adopted Congress’ policy of keeping a few posts always vacant to pacify a few others,” a BJP MLA said on condition of anonymity.

There had been reports the government would expand the Cabinet before the Winter Session of the legislature beginning from December 7 in Nagpur. Currently, there are 30 ministers, including the chief minister, 18 Cabinet and 12 ministers of state. Maharashtra can have a total of 42 ministers.