AURANGABAD: The names of MLAs who will take oath as ministers of the Maharashtra cabinet on Tuesday are being finalised, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said on Monday.
"The names will be finalised by Monday night or on Tuesday," the chief minister told reporters in Nanded city in the Marathwada region.
"You will come to know. The names of MLAs are not finalised yet. The names will be finalised by tonight or tomorrow. You will come to know about them tomorrow," Shinde said.
He was responding to a query of reporters on the expansion of the cabinet after landing at the Nanded airport this evening.
Shinde was sworn in as the CM on June 30 along with Devendra Fadnavis, who took oath as Deputy CM.
A dozen ministers will take oath at Tuesday's ceremony at Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai at 11 am, an aide of Shinde had told PTI on condition of anonymity.
The next round of expansion would take place later, he added.
Currently, Shinde and Fadnavis of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are the only two ministers in the state cabinet.
A dozen ministers will take oath at Tuesday's ceremony at Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai at 11 am, an aide of Shinde told PTI on condition of anonymity.
The next round of expansion would take place later, he added.
"The monsoon session of the state legislature has to be held at the earliest, so we decided to induct 12 legislators in the ministry expansion. Some of those taking the oath on Tuesday would be from the Legislative Council," the aide said.
Shinde, who emerged as a surprise choice for the top post after managing to take a major chunk of Shiv Sena MLAs with him, will have a difficult task accommodating all of them in the ministry, sources said.
From the Shinde group, the names of Bharat Gogawale and Shambhuraj Desai are doing the rounds.
From the BJP, state party chief Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Suresh Khade and Atul Save are likely to be inducted, party sources said.
Shinde, however, said the names of those who will take oath as ministers on Tuesday are being finalised.
"They will be finalised tonight or tomorrow (morning)," Shinde said.
The CM has made seven visits to New Delhi in the last one month, and with every visit there was talk that the ministry expansion was round the corner.
Ajit Pawar, Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly, said Shinde had promised a ministerial berth to every MLA who joined him.
"Now Shinde is unable to fulfil his promise, hence the delay in cabinet expansion. The chief minister should disclose reasons for the delay," Pawar said.
Pawar also said there has been no invitation to him so far from the government for Tuesday's ministry expansion.
It is clear that not all of the 40 rebel Sena MLAs who are in the Shinde group will get the ministerial berth, he added.
"The delay in Maharashtra is small compared to Telangana, where in 2019, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao waited for 61 days to form a full-fledged council of ministers," a political observer said.