Mumbai: Maharashtra cabinet expansion is expected to take place at 11 am tomorrow, August 9, at Maharashtra Raj Bhavan, sources said.
Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is expected to retain the key home portfolio while Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde is expected to add at least 15 new ministers to his cabinet this week.
Fadnavis said to reporters on Sunday that "Ajit Pawar is the chief of the opposition. He will have to say such things. Ajit dada conveniently forgets that when he was in the government, there were just 5 ministers for the first 32 days," To improve its presence in Maharashtra for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Fadnavis said , the BJP has set out to locate 16 parliamentary districts where opposition parties have a history of consistently winning.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had said on August 6 that secretaries had not been given ministerial-level authority outside of quasi-judicial affairs. The Chief Minister was accused by the state's opposition of running a two-member government and giving the bureaucrats the authority to make decisions. These constituencies, according to him, included some that were held by Team Shinde-affiliated Shiv Sena officials.
Eknath Shinde, a Shiv Sena renegade, and Devendra Fadnavis, his deputy, both started office on June 30. Later, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari met with Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde to stake their claims to power.
Devendra Fadnavis met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on June 28 and requested a floor test from him. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, submitted his letter of resignation to the Governor the following day.
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