MUMBAI: The BJP is likely to keep the key home, finance and revenue portfolios and cede the urban development and irrigation portfolios to the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena in its cabinet-sharing arrangement, said sources.
The Shinde government won the trust vote with 164 MLAs polling in its favour. The Shinde faction has the support of 50 MLAs, including 40 rebel MLAs from the Sena. The BJP has 106 MLAs of its own and the support of several small parties and independents.
Although it has more than twice the number of MLAs as the Shinde faction, the BJP surrendered the chief minister's post to Shinde, and made its leader Devendra Fadnavis the deputy chief minister.
Sources said that given its numbers, the BJP will receive a much larger share of cabinet berths. The BJP is likely to get 28 cabinet and minister of state portfolios, while the Eknath Shinde faction is likely to receive 13. Of the 13 berths, two are likely to go to smaller parties and Independents who supported the Shinde faction.
When Fadnavis was CM in the BJP-Sena government, he had kept home with himself. The BJP is expected to retain it as well as keep revenue, finance and PWD.
Shinde had the urban development and MSRDC portfolio in the previous MVA government. The MSRDC handles big-ticket projects like the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway. Sources said the Shinde camp is expected to retain urban development and MSRDC and may also get the irrigation portfolio. Both urban development and irrigation were with the BJP in the earlier BJP-Sena regime.