Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said that women legislators will be inducted into the ministry in the next round of expansion, following criticism over not representing women in the expanded cabinet. Chief Minister forty days after taking oath Eknath Shinde Earlier in the day his cabinet was expanded by inducting 18 new members – nine each from the rebel Shiv Sena group and the BJP – but no woman MLA found a place in his team, leading to criticism from opposition parties and activists, news agency . PTI The report said.
Notably, with the expansion, the strength of the Shinde ministry has gone up to 20 and responding to criticism, fadnavis “There will definitely be women in the next cabinet expansion. Earlier people used to criticize us for the delay in cabinet expansion, but now they have come up with something new.”
“When the government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in (in November 2019), there was not a single woman cabinet minister in it. Then no one criticized that government,” said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, according to the report.
Interestingly, Thackeray was sworn in as chief minister in November 2019 along with five ministers from allies of Congress and NCP. The report said that women members were later included in the council of ministers. Asked about the inclusion of rebel Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Rathod in the new cabinet, Fadnavis said Chief Minister Shinde has already clarified his stand on it and there is no need for further comment. The report said that Rathod, who was the Forest Minister in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, was forced to resign last year after BJP leaders blamed him for the suicide of a woman in Pune.
Eknath Shinde said that the MVA government had given a “clean chit” to Rathod and hence his name was considered for the cabinet post this time. In an apparent attack on Sharad Pawar-led NCP, Fadnavis said in Pune, “The party whose two former ministers are in jail on corruption charges has no moral right to list (our ministers).” report good.
(with inputs from PTI)
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