Amidst the possibility of cabinet expansion, Shinde meets Shah in Delhi

CM Eknath Shinde visited Delhi to discuss state cabinet expansion with Amit Shah ahead of the monsoon session. 15 berths remain to be filled by October.

Mumbai: Chief minister Eknath Shinde made an unscheduled visit to Delhi late on Sunday night to meet union home minister Amit Shah for discussion on the state cabinet expansion ahead of the monsoon session beginning from Thursday. Apart from the expansion, the state government is also expected to finalise the appointments to the statutory boards and corporations.

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Around 15 ministerial berths remain, and the chief minister is expected to allot these to aspirants from the three parties in the government before its term ends in October this year.

“The aspirants from the three ruling parties, especially Shiv Sena, have been putting tremendous pressure on the party leadership. All the municipal corporations and most of the district councils have no elected members. This has resulted in unrest and indifference towards party work. As immediate elections to the local bodies are not possible, our endeavour is to fill up the cabinet berths so that the party cadres get charged up to some extent,” said a Shiv Sena leader from the CM camp.

At present, the cabinet has 10 members each from the Shinde camp and the BJP, and nine from the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party. After its member, Sandipan Bhumre, resigned as a minister on being elected to the Lok Sabha, the Shinde camp’s strength has dropped to eight. In the expansion, each party is expected to get 3-5 berths while 10 of the 15 to be sworn in are expected to be ministers of state.

However, a leader from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP asserted that if the expansion does not take place in the next two days, it is unlikely to happen. “The major challenge before the CM would be to convince his two allies to accept the number of berths allotted to them. And, thereafter, the leaders of the respective parties would have to face the herculean task of picking the aspirants from their fold,” he added.