Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has demanded the crucial home ministry from the BJP and talks on portfolio allocation are still in progress, Shinde’s aide and Shiv Sena MLA Bharat Gogavale said in Mumbai on Saturday.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde [Photo : ANI]
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has demanded the crucial home ministry from the BJP and talks on portfolio allocation are still in progress, Shinde’s aide and Shiv Sena MLA Bharat Gogavale said in Mumbai on Saturday.
“When Devendra Fadnavis was Deputy Chief Minister in the Shinde-led government, he held the home ministry. Therefore Shinde has demanded the home ministry and talks on portfolio allocation are in progress,” Gogavale said.
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Gogawale stated that cabinet expansion is likely to take place between December 11 and December 16, just ahead of the winter session of the Maharashtra legislature.
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The Maharashtra cabinet, including the chief minister, can have a maximum of 43 ministers. “A final decision on the number of ministers to take oath in the cabinet expansion will be taken in two to three days,” a senior BJP leader claimed.
Incidentally, the winter session of the legislature is set to begin on December 16 in Nagpur, which is Maharashtra’s second capital. Though it has been claimed that there will soon be clarity about allocation of ministerial portfolios in three days, there are indications that talks could be full of compromises and hard bargaining, sources said.
Discussions about allocation of ministerial portfolios seem to be complicated despite the previous talks Shinde had with both Union Minister Amit Shah immediately after he was sworn in. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah are being informed of the ministerial portfolio allocations talks going on in Mumbai, it is learnt.
Another issue which has not gone down well with the Shinde-led Sena is BJP’s alleged attempts to change the portfolios held by the Shinde-led Shiv Sena in the previous Mahayuti government, according to a Sena leader.
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