Mumbai/Panaji/Raipur: Ahead of the deadline of downsizing of jumbo Ministries, 22 Ministers were today (July 6, 2004) dropped in Maharashtra, five in Chhattisgarh and one resigned in Goa to meet the Constitutional requirement that set the size to 15 per cent of the combined strength of the legislatures.

Twenty-two Ministers, four of Cabinet rank and 18 Ministers of State were dropped from the Democratic Front (DF) Government in Maharashtra today to prune the size of 65-member large Ministry to 43 as per the 91st amendment to Constitution.

While effecting the exercise, Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde also elevated five Ministers of State--three from NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) and two from Congress-- to Cabinet rank.

The downsizing exercise was done after much confabulation among the Congress and NCP leadership.

Shinde described the exercise as a 'painful job and said all the dropped ministers had done a good job.

The Chief Minister told reporters that Congress has not applied any criteria for removing the party's Ministers.

Shinde said the decision to drop the Ministers was taken after consulting Congress high command. However, Deputy Chief Minister Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, who is also the senior NCP leader, said his party has removed only those ministers, in whose constituency the party had fared badly in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls.

The number of Ministers of State removed include six each from Congress and NCP and three independents each from the Congress and NCP quota.

With this exercise, the number of Cabinet rank ministers rose to 28 from the previous 27 with the elevation of five Ministers of State as cabinet ministers in the State.

The strength of ministers of State became 15 from the previous 38.