Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said the state cabinet would be expanded soon. Talking to reporters at his official residence here, he also said that most of the new members will be Ministers of State.
''The expansion would be carried out soon," he said. The state Council of Ministers at present has 18 cabinet ministers including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. There are nine ministers each from the Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena and his ally Bharatiya Janata Party.
The present government took over on June 30 this year after the Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition government of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress collapsed following Shinde's rebellion. While on June 30 only Shinde and Fadnavis took oath, the first cabinet expansion took place on August 9.
The Council of Ministers can have up to 43 members in Maharashtra. Asked when the long-awaited elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation would take place, Fadnavis said it was for the courts to decide. He was apparently referring to the petitions filed in the courts over BMC polls and OBC political quota. The BJP leader agreed that it was not desirable to keep an important civic body like BMC under the control of an administrator for long.
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