Maha Cabinet expansion: 18 MLAs take oath as ministers

MUMBAI: The much-awaited expansion of the Maharashtra Cabinet took place on Tuesday with a total of 18 MLAs-9 each from BJP and from the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction sworn in as ministers in a grand ceremony in Mumbai's Raj Bhavan.

Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari administered the oath of office to 18 MLAs as ministers.

The Cabinet expansion comes over 40 days after Chief Minister Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in after a rebellion led by the former toppled the Udhav Thackeray led Maha Vikas Aghadi-government in the state.

The BJP MLAs set to get cabinet berths include- Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Radha Krishna Vikhe Patil, Ravindra Chavhan, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Vijaykumar Gavit and Atul Save.

Leaders from Shiv Sena inducted include Dada Bhuse, Shambhuraje Desai, Sandeepan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil and Sanjay Rathod.

MLAs of the Eknath Shinde camp arrived at Sahyadri Guest House in Mumbai this morning to attend a meeting. On June 30, Shinde took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister and Devendra Fadnavis his deputy.

Later, Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde met with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and staked claim to power.

On June 28, Devendra Fadnavis met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and asked him for a floor test.

The next day, Uddhav Thackeray offered his resignation to the Governor as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

On August 6, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had said no ministerial-level powers have been given to the secretaries except in quasi-judicial matters.

The Opposition in the state had accused the Chief Minister of functioning as a two-member cabinet and having designed the decision-making powers to the bureaucrats.

He said these constituencies included those held by Shiv Sena leaders who have now joined Team Shinde.