Maharashtra gets 18 new ministers; 9 from Eknath Shinde's Sena, 9 from BJP
The cabinet was expanded almost 40 days after Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the chief minister and deputy chief minister, respectively. Of the 55 MLAs of Shiv Sena, 40 have aligned with Shinde. The revolt led to the collapse of the Thackeray-led government in June.
FollowAt a formal ceremony held on Tuesday in Mumbai, 18 MLAs — 9 from the BJP and 9 from the Shiv Sena group headed by the chief minister Eknath Shinde — were sworn in as ministers. This much expected cabinet enlargement occurred 40 days after the Uddhav Thackeray-led administration was overthrown by a mutiny by the Sena party led by Shinde. Before the event this morning, Chief Minister Shinde had a meeting with MLAs from his side. 40 of the 55 Sena MLAs support him.
Shinde and the BJP leadership met several times prior to the enlargement of the cabinet. The deputy chief minister took many flights to Delhi to discuss the names of potential candidates with Amit Shah, the union's minister of housing, among others. The final list demonstrates a delicate balancing act between compensating Sena MLAs for their mutiny against the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray and ensuring there is no animosity in the BJP ranks either.
Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Ravindra Chavhan, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Vijaykumar Gavit, and Atul Save are among the BJP MLAs that received cabinet positions.
Also Read | Maharashtra Cabinet expansion: Rebel Shiv Sena MLAs likely to be re-inducted, Home dept for Fadnavis
Dada Bhuse, Sandeepan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil, Sanjay Rathod, and Shambhuraje Desai will all swear allegiance as members of the Sena camp.
Notably, both - Shinde and Fadnavis have been functioning as a two-member cabinet, inviting criticism from Opposition leaders, including NCP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. In order to increase its presence in Maharashtra for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, according to Fadnavis, the BJP has set out to locate 16 parliamentary districts where opposition parties have a history of consistently winning.
Also Read | Maha cabinet expansion likely before August 15; Fadnavis to get Home
