Little over a month after he assumed the office, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will on Monday undertake the first expansion of his Cabinet, an exercise in which he is expected to induct at least 36 new ministers into his team.
While former senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar will in likelihood be sworn in as the deputy chief minister, as many as 35 ministers will be sworn into the office at a swearing-in ceremony to be held on the Vidhan Bhavan premises at 1 pm on Monday.
"Unless there is a last minute change in the plan, 36 ministers, including 26 of the Cabinet rank, will be sworn into office at one go tomorrow," a senior minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi ( MVA) government said here on Sunday evening.
Of the 36 ministers to be sworn in, 13 ministers each will be from the Shiv Sena and NCP (10 each of Cabinet rank and three ministers of
State each from the two parties), while 10 ministers will be from the Congress (8 of Cabinet rank and three ministers of state).
With Monday’s expansion, the number of ministers in the Uddhav Thackeray Cabinet will go up to 43, including that of the chief minister.
When he formed the Government on November 28, Uddhav had inducted six MVA ministers – Eknath Shinde, Subhash Desai (both from the Shiv Sena), Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal (both from the NCP), Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin Raut (both from the Congress).
Ajit Pawar’s induction into the State Cabinet will mark his return to the Maharashtra government in the same post after gap of one month.
It may be recalled that Ajitdada – as Ajit Pawar is known in the state political circles – had resigned as the deputy chief minister in the BJP-led government on November 26, leading to the resignation of then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and subsequent collapse of the government in a brief span of 80 hours.
When he is sworn in as the the deputy chief minister in the Uddhav Thackeray Cabinet, Ajitdada will be holding the number two post in the State Cabinet for the fourth time. He was the deputy chief minister between from November 10, 2010 to September 25, 2012, from October 25, 2012 to September 26, 2014 and from November 23 2019 to November 26 2019.
It may be recalled Ajitdada had resigned from the deputy chief minister’s post on September 25, 2012,
following media reports on the alleged irregularities in the awarding of 38 irrigation contracts worth Rs 20,000 crore in Vidarbha region during 2009. He returned as the deputy chief minister a month later.
Ajitdada’s possible induction as the deputy chief minister comes in the wake of a second “clean chit” he received late last week from the State Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) in the much-discussed Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam.
In an affidavit filed before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on December 19, 2019, State Director-General of Police (ACB) Parambir Singh, alluded to Ajit Pawar’s role in the case and said:
“No criminal liability is disclosed during the course of inquiry/investigations by the Special Investigation Team”. Earlier on November 27 – a day before the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was sworn into office, another ACB official – had filed an affidavit before the Nagpur bench of the high court, giving a “clean chit” to Ajit Pawar.
In Monday's expansion, Uddhav is likely to induct into his Cabinet the following MLAs from the Shiv Sena: Anil Parab, Ravindra Waikar, Sunil Prabhu, Sunil Raut (all from Mumbai), Uday Samant, Bhaskar Jadhav, Vaibhav Naik, Pratap Sarnaik (all from Konkan region) Shamburaje Desai, Prakash Amberkar ( both from Western Maharashtra), Sanjay Shirsat, Abdul Sattar, Tanaji Sawant ( all from Marathwada), Ashish Jaiswal, Sanjay Raimulkar, Bacchu Kadu, Sanjay Rathod (all from Vidarbha), Gulabrao Patil, Dada Bhuse, Suhas Khande ( all from north Maharashtra).
From the NCP side, those who will make it to the Uddhav Thackeray Cabinet will include: Ajit Pawar, Dilip Walse-Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Bala saheb Patil, Datta Bharane (western Maharashtra), Dhananjay Munde, Rajesh Tope, Dr Rajesh Shingane (Marathwada), Nawab Malik ( (Mumbai), Jitendra Awhad ( Thane), Hasan Mushrif, Anil Deshmukh (Vidarbha) Aditi Tatkare( Konkan region) and Dr Kiran Lahamate (north Maharashtra).
It remains to be seen if both senior Congress leaders and former chief ministers Chavan and Ashok Chavan or one of the two Chavans will be inducted into the State Cabinet in Monday's expansion
The other Congress MLAs who are expected to find a place in the State Cabinet in the expansion will include: former leader of the Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar (Vidarbha), Amit Deshmukh (Marathwada) Varsha Gaikwad, ( Mumbai), Sunil Kedar, Satej Patil, Vishwajit Kadam ( both from western Maharashtra) K C Padvi (North Maharashtra)and Sunil Kedar.
