About 30 ministers would take oath before the week-long winter session of the state legislature which is slated to begin in Nagpur on December 16
Representational Pic/File
The Maharashtra cabinet expansion of the BJP-led government in state would take place on December 15 with the new ministers taking the oath of office at a ceremony in Nagpur, official sources said on Friday, reported the PTI.
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About 30 ministers would take oath, a senior BJP leader told PTI.
The week-long winter session of the state legislature is slated to begin in Nagpur, Maharashtra's second capital, from December 16.
Devendra Fadnavis took oath as Chief Minister with Shiv Sena leader Eknath shinde and NCP chief Ajit Pawar as his deputies at a grand ceremony in Mumbai on December 5.
The council of ministers in Maharashtra can have a maximum of 43 members including the chief minister.
Meanwhile, the ruling Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in Maharashtra may not give another chance to three leaders in the new state cabinet even as they were ministers in the previous government in view of complaints about their performance and inaccessibility, a party leader said, the PTI had earlier reported.
The party is likely to induct fresh faces in their place, as per a PTI report.
A close aide of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and party MLA said several legislators raised concern regarding certain ministers. They said the three former ministers - one each from Konkan, western Maharashtra and Marathwada - were inaccessible even to the party MLAs, according to the PTI.
"We have raised this issue with the deputy CM (Shinde) and demanded that they should not be inducted in the new cabinet. These ministers did not even meet their own party MLAs," the aide had earlier said.
Shiv Sena MLA and spokesperson Sanjay Shirsat had earlier this week said that Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis has made it clear that the cabinet expansion will take place before the winter session of the state legislature which begins from December 16.
On complaints and possible exclusion of some former ministers in the previous government, Sanjay Shirsat said, "Such grievances must have reached Eknath Shinde saheb. He is the chief leader of the party and he will decide on it," the news agency had earlier reported.
(with PTI inputs)
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