Shinde, Fadnavis hold late-night meeting ahead of Maharashtra cabinet expansion

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde met with Deputy CM and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis late on Thursday night amidapparent disgruntlement among his MLAs.

The meeting came days after Shinde denied that his Shiv Sena MLAs were uncomfortable with the inclusion of Ajit Pawar and 8 Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislators in the state cabinet and claimed that he would remain as the chief minister until 2024.

Maharashtra cabinet now has 29 ministers with the entry of NCP leaders on Sunday. It can accommodate 14 more. The Sharad Pawar-led NCP group said that the late-night meeting demonstrated that the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the state BJP are divided over the appointment of NCP members to the government.

Mahesh Tapase, spokesperson of the Sharad Pawar faction, said Shinde’s MLAs feel that if Ajit Pawar and his MLAs get plum posts, the very purpose for which they had rebelled and caused the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government will be rendered futile.

There is unrest among Shinde’s MLAs on how they will face the electorate again, Tapase said in a statement. Tapase claimed that Shiv Sena MLAs are not sure if they will get ministerial berths. The late-night Shinde Fadnavis meeting proves that there is unrest among the MLAs.