Maha Cabinet to be extended by Dec 23: Malik

Speaking to reporters, Malik said NCP chief Sharad Pawar held a meeting of the party legislators in the evening in Nagpur where the winter session of the state legislature is currently underway. At the meeting, Pawar indicated that he will meet Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and that the expansion of the Cabinet could take place within two days after the session ends on December 21, Malik said. “Ministers will be allotted portfolios so that they can start working,” Malik quoted Pawar as saying.

The NCP is a part of the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government which also comprises the Congress.

The Maharashtra Assembly on Tuesday witnessed ruckus as members of the Opposition BJP and the ruling Shiv Sena indulged in a scuffle and charged at each other over the issue of assistance to farmers, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for the day. The state Legislative Council also witnessed noisy protests over the issue following which it, too, was adjourned for the day.

The BJP legislators, led by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis and state party chief Chandrakant Patil, marched to the Vidhan Bhawan here in the morning with flex boards carrying a report published earlier in the Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, demanding Rs 25,000 per hectare aid for farmers hit by untimely rains.