Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will be attending a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) core committee meeting at New Delhi on Sunday, according to sources. Mr Fadnavis is expected to discuss the names of the prospective ministers who would be inducted in the Cabinet expansion.
An official of chief minister’s office (CMO) said that Mr Fadnavis is scheduled to meet home minister Amit Shah on June 9, but the agenda of the meeting was not mentioned. However, the sources said that the chief minister would discuss the names of legislators who can be given a place in his Cabinet.
Mr Shah, the BJP national president, had called a meeting of the party core committee on Sunday.
Earlier in the week, speaking with the reporters in New Delhi before meeting Mr Shah, Mr Fadnavis had said “I will meet Amit Shahji on various issues. We are going in for a Cabinet expansion in Maharashtra and that too will be discussed with him. We are also meeting on June 9, and then too, we will be discussing this issue.”
The Cabinet expansion is expected before the monsoon session, which is scheduled to begin on June 17. It would be the last session in the state before it goes to the polls.
On Friday after a review meeting on Kharif crops at Rang Sharda, Mr Fadnavis had said, "A Cabinet expansion will happen.”
The state BJP’s core committee meeting will be held on Monday. There are 37 ministers in the current Cabinet of the Maharashtra government, headed by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, and there is scope for five additional ministers. In the current saffron Cabinet, the BJP has 16 ministers and seven leaders with the rank of minister of state (MoS) while the Shiv Sena has five ministers of Cabinet rank and one MoS. All other smaller allies have a Cabinet and an MoS each.
