The tripartite government of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will go for a full-fledged expansion of its Cabinet early next week.
As many as 29 ministers are likely to take oath, with the Shiv Sena keeping 10 ministries, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) 11 and the Congress eight, sources in the government said.
The Cabinet currently has a strength of six, and with another 29, the council of ministers will stretch to 35. Maharashtra can have 43 ministers, including a Chief Minister, since the size of the council of ministers can be up to 15% of the strength of the 288-member Assembly.
The latest expansion is likely to see inclusion of some big names, including the NCP’s Ajit Pawar and Congress’s Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan.
Of the 29, the Sena will likely end up keeping seven Cabinet minisers and three ministers for State (MoS), the NCP will retain eight Cabinet berths and three MoS and the Congress six Cabinet ministers and two MoS.
Currently, NCP ministers Jayant Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal between them hold the portfolios of Finance and Planning, Housing, Public Health, Cooperation, Food and Civil Supplies, Labour and Minority Affairs, Rural Development, Irrigation and Social Welfare. Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin Raut hold Revenue, Energy, Public Works, Tribal Affairs, and Women and Child.
The plum portfolios remain with the Sena, but are likely to be shared with the NCP. The Sena currently manages Home, Urban Development, Industries, Mining, Agriculture, Technical Education, Tourism, Parliamentary Affairs and Environment.
“We are happy to share some of these responsibilities as keeping so many portfolios has only resulted in extra work pressure on us,” said a Sena minister.
Senior leaders in the government said key portfolios which have been temporarily allotted as of now will be shuffled, with the NCP’s Dilip Walse Patil tipped to be the State Home Minister. Mr. Pawar may also be accommodated in a prominent role, said a senior MVA leader.
