In Fadnavis cabinet expansion, mix of old and new, 19 berths for BJP

NEW DELHI: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis-led

Maharashtra cabinet

was expanded on Sunday as 39 MLAs were administered oath as ministers by governor PC Radhakrishnan at Raj Bhavan in Nagpur.
In the expansion, the BJP got 19 ministerial berths, followed by 11 for Eknath Shinde‘s Shiv Sena and 9 for Ajit Pawar‘s Nationalist Congress Party.
Including CM Fadnavis and deputy CMs Shinde and Pawar, the strength of the state cabinet has reached 42. The oath-taking ceremony took place on the eve of the state legislature’s winter session being held in Nagpur from December 16 to 21.
Those who were sworn in from BJP include Girish Mahajan, Chandrakant Patil, Pankaja Munde, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Ashish Shelar, Jaikumar Rawal, Nitesh Rane, Shivendra Bhosale, Pankaj Bhoyar, Ganesh Naik, Meghana Bordikar, Madhuri Misal, Atul Save, Sanjay Savkare, Akash Phundkar, Jaikumar Gore and Ashok Uike.

Interestingly, the

Shiv Sena ministers

will be given two and half year’s tenure as they will have to vacate the minister’s posts paving the way for others to get the ministerial berths.
The 11 ministers have been asked to commit on oath that they will leave the ministerial posts after two and half years paving the way for others to be inducted in the Cabinet.
The swearing-in of the state cabinet in Nagpur marked a rare occasion as the last such ceremony in Nagpur happened in 1991, when the then governor C Subramaniam administered oath to Chhagan Bhujbal and other ministers.

In the state polls, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance secured a decisive victory, winning 235 seats. The BJP emerged as the single-largest party with 132 seats, while Shiv Sena won 57 and NCP secured 41 seats. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance faced a major setback, with Congress winning just 16 seats, Shiv Sena (UBT) securing 20, and the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) claiming only 10 seats.