Maharashtra cabinet expansion to be delayed

The much-awaited expansion of the Maharashtra Council of Ministers, scheduled for Monday, may be delayed by a day. An indication to this effect was given by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh who told reporters in New Delhi on Sunday that some MLAs felt Monday was not an auspicious day for ministry expansion.

Earlier, Deshmukh had a lengthy meeting with All India Congress Committee general secretary Margaret Alva to finalise the list of ministers ahead of the state cabinet expansion.

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Congress can appoint 18 ministers in the state cabinet as per the power sharing agreement with its alliance partner, the Nationalist Congress Party. Under the deal the Sharad Pawar-led party got 24 ministries in lieu of the chief ministership.

Pawar has authorised Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil to choose his team after consulting state leaders and party MLAs. Congress also has to accommodate Independents in the ministry from its quota.

Independent MLA from Indapur, Harshvardhan Patil is a strong candidate for a ministerial berth. The Maharashtra ministry is to be sworn-in tomorrow, Deshmukh had said in Mumbai.

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Emerging out of the meeting with Alva, the Maharashtra chief minister told reporters that talks were still continuing and he expected that a final shape to the cabinet would be given after his meeting with party chief Sonia Gandhi on Sunday evening.

"There is no difficulty in it. We will try to give representation to each and every section, but it is difficult at this juncture to divulge all the details," he said when asked about the cabinet formation.

"By this evening final shape would be given to the cabinet", he said, adding that everybody expects to be included in it. "We have to resolve all these things".