Doing away with the "less government, more governance" objective, the BJP-Shiv Sena government has decided to go for yet another cabinet expansion and induct 12 more ministers – six from the BJP, two from the Sena and the rest four from small alliance partners. Minister for cooperation Chandrakant Patil revealed this in Sangli on Tuesday, though he did not specify any date for the expansion.
As and when the next expansion takes place, it would become a mega-alliance government with only one less than the stipulated number of 43 ministers as per constitutional provisions. According to provisions, the size of a cabinet can go up to a maximum of 15% of the strength of the House, which is, in this case, 288.
On the issue of sugar factories going for crushing without necessary permissions, Patil said the government would take strict action against such units. He said that his department would also act against sugar factories which fail to provide Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) to sugarcane growers. FRP has been fixed by the government in order to protect the farmers from exploitation.
The BJP emerged as the largest single party, winning 122 seats after the 2014 assembly elections in the state. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and nine other ministers took oath during a grand ceremony at Wankhede stadium on October 31, 2014. After the Shiv Sena agreed to join the government, an expansion was effected on December 5 by inducting 10 ministers each from the two major alliance partners.
The BJP had contested the elections by bringing together smaller parties like the Swabhimani Shetkari Party (led by Lok Sabha MP Raju Shetty), Rashtriya Samaj Party (led by Mahadev Jankar), Shivsangram (led by Vinayak Mete) and the Republican Party of India (led by Ramdas Athavale). Athavale has already been made a Rajya Sabha MP. Therefore, the remaining three parties are all set to have their share of power during the ensuing cabinet expansion.
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