Notably, with the expansion, the strength of the Shinde ministry has gone up to 20 and responding to the criticism, Fadnavis said, “there will be women in the next cabinet expansion for sure. Earlier, people were critical of us for delay in the cabinet expansion, but now they have come up with something new."
“When Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led government had taken oath (in November 2019), there was not a single woman cabinet minister in it. Nobody had then criticized that government," said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, according to the report.
Interestingly, Thackeray was sworn-in as chief minister in November 2019 along with five ministers from supporting parties the Congress and the NCP. Women members were inducted into the Council of Ministers later, the report said. When questioned about the induction of rebel Sena MLA Sanjay Rathod in the new cabinet, Fadnavis said Chief Minister Shinde has already clarified the stand on it and there was no need for further comment. Rathod, who was the forest minister in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, was forced to resign last year after BJP leaders blamed him for a woman's suicide in Pune, the report said.
Eknath Shinde said the MVA government had given a "clean chit" to Rathod and hence his name was considered for a Cabinet position this time. In an apparent attack on the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, Fadnavis said in Pune, “The party whose two former ministers are in jail on charges of corruption has no moral right to put out a list (of our ministers)," as per the report.
(With inputs from PTI)
