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Ministers quit posts

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JUNE 30. All Ministers in Maharashtra, except two, submitted their resignations today to facilitate the downsizing of the Ministry.

The Chief Minister, Sushilkumar Shinde, told reporters after his weekly Cabinet meeting that he would soon call on the Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, and the Nationalist Congress Party leader, Sharad Pawar, to select the resignation letters to be forwarded to the Governor, Mohammad Fazal.

The exercise will have to be completed by July 7, when the law limiting the size of the Cabinet to 15 per cent of the strength of the Legislative Assembly comes into force.

The Maharashtra Assembly has 289 seats, including one nominated member.

At present, the Shinde Government has 65 Ministers, and 22 Ministers need to be axed.

There were 69 members in the Cabinet earlier, but four Ministers quit. This included the Deputy Chief Minister, Chhagan Bhujbal, who resigned after being questioned by the Special Investigation Team probing the Telgi scam.

While the Congress Ministers submitted their resignations to Mr. Shinde, the NCP Ministers handed over their letters to the Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader, Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil. The Independents have also put in their papers.

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