16 women MLAs in ruling camp, but not one in cabinet

Though the ruling parties have 16 women MLAs, not one of them made it to the cabinet as chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis inducted 18 ministers on Tuesday

Though the ruling parties have 16 women MLAs, not one of them made it to the cabinet as chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis inducted 18 ministers on Tuesday.

Chief minister Eknath Shinde, deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, and Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at the swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhavan on Tuesday Satish Bate/HT Photo

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 12 women MLAs - highest among all parties in the assembly. The Shinde faction of Shiv Sena has two women MLAs - Yamini Jadhav and Lata Sonawane. Two independent legislators, Geeta Jain and Manjula Gavit, have also extended their support to Shinde. However, when Shinde-Fadnavis chose their ministers for the first expansion of their cabinet, not one of them was selected for ministerial responsibility.

Expectedly, opposition parties slammed the ruling combine.

“It is unfortunate that there is not even one woman among the 18 ministers. It shows the attitude of the ruling parties towards women,” Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule said.

Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi and Congress MLA Yashomati Thakur, too, criticised the government.

Shinde, however, said that women ministers would be inducted in the next round of cabinet expansion.

The previous Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government had three women ministers - Varsha Gaikwad, Yashomati Thakur and Aditi Tatkare.