Mumbai: Maharashtra cabinet minister Jayant Patil said on Wednesday that there were no differences between the allies Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress over the allocation of portfolios.
Patil, who heads state unit of the Nationalist Congress Party, was speaking to reporters at Mantralaya, the state secretariat here.
"There are no differences between us," Patil told reporters when asked about reports of friction between the allies over portfolio allocation, expected to be announced on Wednesday or Thursday.
With the swearing-in of 36 ministers on Monday, the state now has a 43-member council of ministers. Patil was speaking after attending a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
The meeting was about how to increase the GST revenue, he said.
About a question about whether the scam-hit Pujab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank would be merged with Maharashtra State Co-operative (MSC) Bank as demanded by some leaders, Patil, currently in charge of finance department, said, "PMC bank operations are spread over three states. So there are difficulties in merging it with the MSC Bank."
On Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis criticizing the government over its loan waiver scheme, Patil said, "I have sympathy for Fadnavis. He is in opposition now, so he will continue to speak like this."
Earlier in the day, Congress ministers Balasaheb Thorat, Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar held a closed-door meeting to discuss portfolio allocation amongst the party's ministers, sources said.
They were expected to meet chief minister Thackeray during the day, after which the allocation of portfolios might be announced, sources added.
The Congress is reportedly upset that it has not got agriculture, co-operation, housing and rural development ministries. Currently, rural development, co-operation and housing are with the NCP and agriculture with the Shiv Sena.
Meanwhile, asked about the disgruntlement among some senior MLAs of the Congress and NCP over exclusion from the cabinet, deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar said, "It is not wrong to have expectations."
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