Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis left for his first Delhi visit on Wednesday after he was sworn in, to meet President Droupadi Murmu, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in what has been described as “a courtesy call”, according to sources.
The CM’s visit to Delhi today is believed to be significant, since it comes close on the heels of a Tuesday night meeting attended by Fadnavis and his Deputy CMs Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar to discuss cabinet expansion and ministerial portfolio allocations. The meeting was held at the additional bungalow ‘Meghdoot’, located next to the CMs present official residence at ‘Sagar’ bungalow, off Narayan Dabholkar Marg in South Mumbai, sources said.
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According to sources, efforts are being made to allot ministerial portfolios by December 14, before the winter session of the Maharashtra assembly begins at Nagpur, which is the winter capital of the state.
There are also indications that the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena is unlikely to get the home ministry or the revenue ministry. Instead, the Eknath Shinde-led Sena may be allotted ministerial portfolios like urban development and the public works department, it is learnt.
It is also learnt that leaders who could be excluded from the Maharashtra cabinet are Deputy CM Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Rathod, Abdul Sattar and Tanaji Sawant. Deputy CM Ajit Pawar-led NCP’s Dilip Walse Patil and Hasan Mushrif are unlikely to be ministers this time. Also likely to be kept out of the cabinet are the BJP’s Suresh Khade and Vijaykumar Gavit, it is learnt.
The names of 15 BJP leaders who could become ministers are Fadnavis confidante Girish Mahajan, Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Pankaja Munde, Ashish Shelar, Mangal Prabat Lodha, Shivendra Raje Bhosale, Chandrakant Patil, Ravindra Chavan, Atul Save, Madhuri Misal, Devyani Farande, Sanjay Kute and Ganesh Naik.
The names of the Deputy CM Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena leaders who could become ministers are Uday Samant, Shamburaj Desai, Dada Bhuse, Gulabrao Patil, Sanjay Shirsat, Pratap Sarnaik, Bharat Gogawale, Ashish Jaiswal, Rajesh Khirsagar and Arjun Khotkar.
The names of Deputy CM Ajit Pawar-led NCP who might make it to the cabinet are Chhagan Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde, Aditi Tatkare, Narhari Zirwal Sanjay Bansod, Dharmarao Baba Atram, Datta Barne, Anil Bhaidas Patil and Makrand Aba Patil.
Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha MP and Udddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut attacked the BJP for its delay in allotting ministerial portfolios. “If ministerial allocations have not been done even after 20 days, and nobody knows who controls the Maharashtra state home ministry, then questions about the state’s law and order situation are bound to crop up. Just the other day, in Beed, a village sarpanch called Santosh Deshmukh was abducted and murdered in broad daylight. In Pune, entrepreneur Satish Wagh, an uncle of MLA Yogesh Talekar was murdered and his body was found later. After the MLA calls up the police chief, he gets no response. This is a serious matter. CM Devendra Fadnavis must clarify if this is how he wishes to run the state of Maharashtra,” Raut said.
In a related development, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Shirsat said that back-to-back meetings about ministerial portfolio allocations have been taking place. “The cabinet expansion is likely to happen in two to three days. The idea is to allot ministerial portfolios before the winter session of the Maharashtra session begins,” Shirsat said.
When asked to comment about whether Shirsat himself may be allotted a ministry, he said, “We will abide by whatever decision Deputy CM Shinde takes. Whether I will be allotted any portfolio and all other details are known only to Deputy CM Shinde. The BJP has the numbers and they also have capable leaders. Apart from the numbers, the Shinde-led Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP also have capable and eligible candidates. Therefore, it becomes a bit difficult to balance out things and that is the reason for the delay in allotting cabinet ministerial portfolios”.
