Ajit Pawar Takes Oath as Deputy CM, Aaditya Thackeray Joins Maharashtra Cabinet: Here's The List

All the ministers were administered the oath of office by Governor B.S. Koshyari in the presence of Maha Vikas Aghadi Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and other dignitaries.

New Delhi: Aaditya Thackeray, newly elected MLA from Worli and son of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, was inducted as minister in his father's cabinet on Monday, as a part of the long overdue cabinet expansion, while senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar was sworn in as deputy chief minister of the state. Almost a month after he was sworn-in as the CM of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray today inducted 35 ministers including Aditya, comprising 25 of Cabinet and 10 of Minister of State rank. It is important to note that Ajit Pawar had also been appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister in the short-lived BJP-NCP alliance government which held sway for just three days in the state. Ex-CM Ashok Chavan was next to take oath as Cabinet minister in Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra govt after which NCP leaders Dilip Walse Patil, Dhananjay Munde, Nawab Malik and Congress' Vijay Wadettiwar were sworn in as Cabinet ministers. The Cabinet has three women: NCP's Aditi Tatkare (MoS) and Congress' Varsha Gaikwad and Yashomati Thakur, both Cabinet rank - though the Sena has no woman nominee. For the first since 2014, the ministry has a four Muslims - Shiv Sena's Abdul Sattar Nabi (MoS), NCP's Malik and Hasan Mushrif, and Congress' Aslam Shaikh, all Cabinet rank. Other big names include Anil Parab, Jitendra Awhad, Anil Deshmukh, Amit Vilasrao Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope, and MoS Satej Patil, Vishwajeet Kadam and Bachu Kadu, reported IANS. Besides, there are other Cabinet ministers such as Sanjay Rathod, Gulabrao Patil, Dada Bhuse, Sandipan Bhumre and Uday Samant (all Shiv Sena), NCP's Rajendra Shingane, Balasaheb Patil (both NCP), Sunik Kedar, K.C. Padvi (both Congress) and Shankarrao Gadakh (Krantikari Shetkari Party), MVA ally. The other new MoS rank inductees are: Shambhuraj Desai, Dattatrau Bharne, Sanjay Bansode, Prajakt Tanpure and Rajendra Patil-Yadravkar, an independent who extended support to the MVA All the ministers were administered the oath of office by Governor B.S. Koshyari in the presence of Maha Vikas Aghadi Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and other dignitaries. Past two weeks, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders comprising Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress have held a series of meetings to finalise the Cabinet expansion plans. Follwing today's expansion the total strength of the ministry has climbed to 43, including CM Thackeray and Dy. CM Pawar. On November 28, Uddhav Thackeray took oath as Chief Minister bringing an end to weeks of political instability in the state's politics after Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress stitched a post-poll coalition as Maha Vikas Aghadi.