Maharashtra Cabinet Expansion: 9 Leaders From BJP & Shiv Sena Each Take Oath As Ministers

Maharashtra Cabinet Expansion: 18 leaders, nine each of BJP and Shiv Sena, are taking the oath to become ministers at a ceremony at Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai.

New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday expanded his two-member cabinet with 18 ministers, nine each of BJP and Shiv Sena, taking oath at a ceremony at Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai.

The expansion comes over 40 days after the new BJP-Shiv Sena government seized power in Maharashtra. Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the CM on June 30 along with Devendra Fadnavis, who took oath as Deputy CM.

The BJP leaders inducted into the cabinet include the party's state chief Chandrakant Patil, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Vijaykumar Gavit, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Ravindra Chavan, Atul Save, and Mangalprabhat Lodha.

Shiv Sena leaders who were sworn in today are Gulabrao Patil, Dada Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Sandipan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar and Shambhuraj Desai.

After the ceremony, CM Shinde said that his government will work full-fledged & take up the responsibility of their respective departments.

"Cabinet expansion took place today. Starting today, they will work full-fledged & take up the responsibility of their respective depts. The rest of the cabinet still remains (to be formed). It's a small cabinet, the rest of the cabinet still remains (to be formed)," he said, as quoted by news agency ANI.

The next round of expansion would take place later, news agency PTI reported an aide of Shinde as informing.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister has made seven visits to New Delhi in the last month, and with every visit, there was talk that the ministry expansion was around the corner.

According to Ajit Pawar, Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly, Shinde promised a ministerial berth to every MLA who joined him.

“Now Shinde is unable to fulfill his promise, hence the delay in the cabinet expansion. The chief minister should disclose reasons for the delay,” Pawar said, as quoted by PTI.

The NCP leader also said that there has been no invitation to him from the Maharashtra government for ministry expansion.

“The delay in Maharashtra is small compared to Telangana, where in 2019, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao waited for 61 days to form a full-fledged council of ministers,” PTI reported a political observer saying.

Amid criticism over the delay, CM Shinde had maintained that the state government's functioning had not been affected in any way due to the same. 

So far, the chief minister and deputy chief minister have taken at least 13 Cabinet decisions, such as bringing back the Jalyukta Shivar scheme, which was known to be Fadnavis' flagship when he was CM, and moving the contentious Metro car shed for the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro back to Aarey Colony, reversing the MVA's decision. 

The new government was formed after some Shiv Sena MLAs, under the leadership of Shinde, rebelled against the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government. The rebellion caused the MVA government --  which consisted of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Congress -- to fall. 

(With Agency Inputs)