Maharashtra cabinet expanded: Meet the new ministers
The Maharashtra cabinet expansion took place on Sunday with the induction of 39 ministers in Nagpur. The expansion comes after the Mahayuti alliance's decisive victory in the state assembly elections, where they won 230 out of 288 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 132 seats, Shiv Sena 57, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) 41.
Fadnavis retains Home portfolio, BJP dominates cabinet
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's party got the lion's share of cabinet berths with 19 MLAs sworn in, including three women leaders. The BJP ministers are Chandrasekhar Bawankule, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Chandrakant Patil, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Pankaja Munde, Ganesh Naik, Atul Save, Ashok Uike, Ashish Shelar, Shivendrasinh Bhosale, Jaykumar Gore, and Girish Mahajan. According to PTI, the BJP is expected to hand the Housing Ministry to the Shiv Sena while keeping the Home Ministry.
Shiv Sena, NCP leaders take oaths
The cabinet also included 11 ministers from the Shiv Sena and nine from the NCP. From the Shiv Sena, Uday Samant, Gulabrao Patil, Dadaji Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Sanjay Shirsat, Shambhuraj Desai, Pratap Sarnaik, Prakash Abitkar, Ashish Jaiswal, Bharatshet Gogawale, and Yogesh Kadam took oaths. While from the NCP party, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Dattatray Bharne, Aditi Tatkare, Manikrao Kokate, Makarand Patil, and Narhari Zirwal took oaths.
Maharashtra council of ministers can have 43 members
The expansion comes just days ahead of the winter session of the state legislature, which will begin on Monday (December 16) in Nagpur. Fadnavis was sworn in as CM on December 5, along with Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and NCP chief Ajit Pawar as his deputies. The Maharashtra council of ministers can have a maximum of 43 members, including the CM.
