Maharashtra cabinet expansion; 9 ministers each from BJP, Sena take oath
Forty days after Eknath Shinde’s rebellion led to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray government, a new cabinet of 18 ministers – nine each from the Shiv Sena and the BJP – under his leadership was sworn in on Tuesday (August 9).
The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai at 11 am. Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari administered the oath of office to the 18 ministers.
Maharashtra Cabinet expansion | Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari administers the oath of office to 18 MLAs as ministers pic.twitter.com/2eDIBVxWj3
— ANI (@ANI) August 9, 2022
BJP legislators who got ministerial portfolios are Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Ravindra Chavan, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Vijaykumar Gavit and Atul Save.
Chandrakant Patil and Vijay Kumar Gavit are among the nine BJP leaders who are taking oath as ministers in Maharashtra Cabinet at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai pic.twitter.com/DCyzwjEVVa
— ANI (@ANI) August 9, 2022
Dada Bhuse, Sandeepan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil, Sanjay Rathod and Shambhuraje Desai, all Sena legislators were sworn in as cabinet ministers.
The second round of cabinet expansion is likely in the next two to three weeks.
Earlier in the morning, Chief Minister Shinde met Shiv Sena legislators backing him at the Sahyadri guest house in south Mumbai, reportedly to pacify those who did not make it to the ministerial list.
Shinde is backed by 40 of the 55 Shiv Sena MLAs.
Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister and BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis took oath as deputy CM on June 30.
Since his swearing-in, the Opposition has criticised the government for delaying cabinet formation.
From the BJP fold
From BJP, the following ministers have been added to the cabinet:
Chandrakant Patil (63), a two-term MLC and first-term MLA from western Maharashtra who served as Revenue and PWD minister from 2014-19.