Long-Awaited Maharashtra Cabinet Expansion Takes Place, 18 MLAs Take Oath
GG News Bureau
Mumbai, 9th August. The much-anticipated expansion of the Maharashtra Cabinet took place on Tuesday, with 18 MLAs sworn in as ministers in a grand ceremony at Mumbai’s Raj Bhavan, nine from the BJP and nine from Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction.
Eighteen MLAs were sworn in as ministers by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
The Cabinet expansion comes more than 40 days after Chief Minister Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in following a rebellion led by the former that toppled the state’s Udhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi-government.
Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Radha Krishna Vikhe Patil, Ravindra Chavhan, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Vijaykumar Gavit, and Atul Save are among the BJP MLAs set to join the cabinet.
Dada Bhuse, Shambhuraje Desai, Sandeepan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil, and Sanjay Rathod are among the Shiv Sena leaders inducted.
MLAs from the Eknath Shinde camp arrived at the Sahyadri Guest House in Mumbai this morning for a meeting.
On June 30, Shinde was sworn in as Maharashtra Chief Minister, and Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as his deputy. Later, Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde met with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and staked claim to power.
Devendra Fadnavis met with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on June 28 and requested a floor test. The following day, Uddhav Thackeray resigned as Chief Minister of Maharashtra to the Governor.
On August 6, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde stated that the secretaries have no ministerial-level powers except in quasi-judicial matters. The state’s opposition accused the Chief Minister of acting as a two-member cabinet and delegating decision-making powers to bureaucrats. He stated that these constituencies included Shiv Sena leaders who have now joined Team Shinde.
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