Lacklustre cabinet members will get boot next year: CM Devendra Fadnavis

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said that non-performing ministers in his Cabinet would be given the boot next March. Mr Fadnavis said that all ministers have one more year to show results, and the performance of the entire Cabinet would be reviewed in March 2017.

“In March next year, the performance of all ministers will reviewed by independent judges and according to the result, one or two ministers whose performance is poor will be removed from the state Cabinet,” said Mr Fadnavis.

The CM met journalists from Mumbai who had come to Delhi for a study tour of Parliament. While replying on Cabinet expansion, Mr Fadnavis said that he had got approval from the party president and (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji. “The Cabinet will be expanded, but it would be on ad-hoc basis,” he said.

He added that he would speak with Shiv Sena about the expansion. “I will speak to the Shiv Sena leadership and ask whether it is interested in the expansion. If it is not ready, only the BJP’s quota will be filled in the Cabinet expansion,” said Mr Fadnavis.

When asked whether smaller allies of the BJP would be given their share in the expansion, he just smiled and said “yes”.

There are 12 vacancies in the state Cabinet that are yet to be filled. However, it is unlikely that Mr Fadnavis will fill up all of them at one go, sources said.