Nine ministers each from the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party and four independent ministers will lose their jobs when the Shushilkumar Shinde-led council of ministers in Maharashtra is pruned as mandated by a constitutional amendment.
 

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Shinde is scheduled to hold the final round of talks with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday to give finishing touches to the pruning exercise.

Shinde, who had met Sonia on Sunday evening in Delhi, will probably talk to her on over the phone.

The 97th Amendment to the Constitution stipulates that the strength of a council of ministers must not exceed 15 per cent of the total number of members in the concerned state assembly.

The same rule applies to the Union council of minister too.

The amendment comes into force on July 7.

An exception has been made only for smaller states such as Sikkim, Mizoram and Goa where the strength of the assembly is 40 or less. There, the state government can have a maximum of 12 ministers.

There are 13 Congress and 12 NCP cabinet ministers in the 65-member Maharashtra ministry.