Shinde govt completes one month in office

But there is still no clarity on the Cabinet expansion.

The Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, which came to power after a high-voltage political drama, is completing one month in office on Saturday, July 30, 2022, but there is still no clarity on when the Cabinet expansion will take place.

Mr. Shinde took oath as Chief Minister on June 30, a day after Uddhav Thackeray was forced to step down from the post following a rebellion by the majority of Sena legislators led by Mr. Shinde. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister.

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The government was formed 10 days after Mr. Shinde raised a banner of revolt against the Shiv Sena leadership. Forty out of 55 Sena MLAs sided with Mr. Shinde, which resulted in the collapse of the two-and-a-half-year-old Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) dispensation comprising the Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress.

After the collapse of the Thackeray government, it was widely speculated that Mr. Fadnavis would take over the reins of the state for the third time with the support of the Sena rebels. But Fadnavis sprang a surprise after he declared that Mr. Shinde would become the next chief minister and he himself would not be a part of the new government.

But there was more surprise in store as some time later BJP’s top leadership asked Mr. Fadnavis to become a part of the government as Deputy Chief minister.

After coming to power, the Shinde government has fast-tracked the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, which was kept on the back burner by the previous Thackeray-led dispensation. Two weeks back, Fadnavis had said that all clearances to expedite the project have been given.