Shinde ill, Fadnavis flies to Delhi to discuss Maharashtra Cabinet with BJP

While Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde reported feeling unwell, his deputy Devendra Fadnavis flew to New Delhi to meet the Bharatiya Janata Party high command to assess the legal issues faced by the new alliance government and work out the ministerial expansion.

There is a growing demand, from the BJP, as well as the Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena, that the ministry be expanded ahead of the Independence Day festivities.

Over the past 35 days, since Shinde and Fadnavis were sworn in as chief minister and deputy chief minister, respectively, they maintained, amid criticism from the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, that the council of ministers would be expanded “soon” or “very soon”.

“The chief minister was feeling unwell due to overexertion in the last few days. So, he decided to take a day off to rest,” officials of the Chief Minister’s Office said.

Initially, the Shinde-Fadnavis duo hoped for an outcome from the Supreme Court in the August 1 hearing and then on 4 August. However, now the hearing has been moved to next week.

“Maharashtra can have a maximum of 43 ministers, and with 41 vacancies left, there is too much pressure on the leadership to accommodate leaders in the new ministry. There are more than 30 senior leaders, from both the sides plus they would have to accommodate new faces. Besides, they would have to give representation to all classes and regions,” sources said, adding that the initial plan was to finalise the ministry by this weekend.

The ministerial hopefuls from the BJP were Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Pravin Darekar, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Ganesh Naik and Ravindra Chavan.

From the Shinde camp, the hopefuls of Shiv Sena are Dada Bhuse, Gulabrao Patil, Uday Samant, Sandipan Bhumre, Abdul Sattar, Sanjay Shirsat and Shambhuraje Desai.