Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis expands his cabinet; inducts 39 ministers

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday expanded his cabinet with the induction of 39 ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in a simple ceremony organized here .

Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan administered oath of office and secrecy to ministers – 19 from BJP; 11 from Shiv Sena and nine from NCP.

MahaYuti partners had reached a 21-12-10 formula to share ministerial posts. Of the 39 ministers, 33 are Cabinet Ministers and 6 are Ministers of State.

Fadnavis along with two Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar took oath at a grand ceremony organized on December 5 in Mumbai in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a galaxy of NDA leaders, representatives of industry and business and Bollywood stars.

With Sunday’s inauguration, the strength of the Fadnavis-led Cabinet is 42 to 43, or 15 per cent of the 288 authorized members of the State Assembly.

The BJP has abandoned former ministers Sudhir Mungantiwar and Ravindra Chavan.

Similarly, Shiv Sena denied ministerial berths to former ministers Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar and Deepak Kesarkar.

Besides, the NCP dropped a former OBC leader and former minister Chhagan Bhujbal as well as former ministers Dilip Walse-Patil and Dharmaraobaba Atram.

Bhujbal, unhappy with his exclusion, did not attend the party rally held in Nagpur hours before the cabinet expansion.

Those who took oath from the BJP include Girish Mahajan, Chandrakant Patil, Pankaja Munde, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Ashish Shelar, Jaikumar Rawal, Nitesh Rane, Shivendra Bhosale, Pankaj Bhoyar, Ganesh Naik, Meghana Bordikar, Madhuri Misal, Atul Save, Sanjay Savkare, Akash Phundkar, Jaikumar Gore and Ashok Uike.

The Shiv Sena list includes Uday Samant, Dada Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Shambhuraj Desai, Gulabrao Patil, Sanjay Shirsat, Bharat Gogawale, Pratap Sarnaik, Prakash Abitkar, Yogesh Kadam and Ashish Jaiswal.

Shiv Sena ministers will be given a tenure of two-and-a-half years as they will have to vacate their ministerial posts, paving the way for others to get the ministerial berths.

The 11 ministers were asked to make an oath commitment to vacate their ministerial posts after two and a half years, paving the way for other ministers to be inducted into the Cabinet.

Shiv Sena lawmaker Narendra Bhondekar from Bhandara constituency in Vidarbha region has resigned from all his posts in protest against not giving him a ministerial berth.

This is the first time that a three-time legislator has expressed disagreement.

The NCP has given ministerial posts to Hasan Mushrif, Aditi Tatkare, Dhananjay Munde, Dattamama Bharne, Narahari Zirwal, Makarand Patil, Babasaheb Patil, Manikrao Kokate and Indranil Naik. He also adopted a formula of granting ministerial posts for two and a half years. This is intended to avoid resentment within the party.

The list of ministers includes Chandrashekhar Bawakule, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Chandrakant Patil, Girish Mahajan, Gulabrao Patil, Ganesh Naik, Dada Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Dhananjay Munde, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Uday Samant, Jaikumar Rawal, Pankaja, Munde , Atul Save, Ashok Uike, Shambhuraj Desai, Ashish Shelar, Dattamama Bharne, Aditi Tatkare, Shivendra Bhosale, Manikrao Kokate, Jaikumar Gore, Narahari Zirwal, Sanjay Savkare, Sanjay Shirsat, Pratap Sarnaik, Bharat Gogawale, Makarand Patil, Nitesh Rane, Akash Phundkar, Babasaheb Patil and Prakash Abitkar.

The list of state ministers includes Madhuri Misal, Ashish Jaiswal, Pankaj Bhoyar, Meghana Bordikar and Indranil Naik.

The regional distribution of ministers includes: from Mumbai-Thane Ashish Shelar, Mangal Prabhat Lodha and Pratap Sarnaik; from the Konkan region – Nitesh Rane, Uday Samant, Bharat Gogawale, Aditi Tatkare and Yogesh Kadam.

Those from north Maharashtra include Dada Bhuse, Gulabrao Patil, Narahari Zirwal, Girish Mahajan, Jaikumar Rawal and Sanjay Savkare.

Western Maharashtra will be represented by Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Shivendra Bhosale, Shambhuraj Desai, Madhuri Misal, Prakash Abitkar, Dattamama Bharne, Hasan Mushrif and Jaikumar Gore.

Ministers from Marathwada region include Pankaja Munde, Atul Save, Sanjay Shirsat, Babasaheb Patil and Meghana Bordikar.

Vidarbha region will be represented by Chandrashekhar Bawakule, Ashish Jaiswal, Sanjay Rathod, Ashok Uike, Akash Phundkar and Pankaj Bhoyar.

The swearing-in took place on the eve of a week-long winter session that began on Monday, the first after the formation of the MahaYuti government following the recently concluded parliamentary elections.

This is the second time the swearing-in has taken place in Nagpur after 1991, when Chhagan Bhujbal and five others took oath.

Bhujbal had staged a rebellion against Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray and surrendered to the Congress.

(Except for the headline, this story, taken from a syndicated feed, has not been edited by Odishatv.in staff)