The Maharashtra cabinet expansion took place today with nine leaders each from Shiv Sena and BJP taking oath.
Mumbai: The much awaited cabinet expansion of the BJP – Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde government took place on Tuesday, August 9. A total of 18 MLAs, 9 each from the BJP and Shiv Sena took oath as ministers at a grand ceremony in Mumbai today.
Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mugantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Ravindra Chavhan, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Vijaykumar Gavit and Atul Save are the 9 ministers sworn in from the BJP , and Dada Bhuse, Shambhuraje Desai, Sandeepan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil and Sanja Rathaud took oath as ministers from the Shinde led Shiv Sena for the Maharashtra government.
Chandrakant Patil is the state unit chief of the BJP and a legislator from Kothrud. He has earlier served as revenue minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government. Sudhir Mungantiwar is among the party’s prominent leaders in the state and has served as finance minister in the previous BJP-led government. Mr Vikhe Patil, who shifted from the Congress to the BJP in 2019, has also been accommodated.
Among cabinet entrants from the Eknath Shinde camp is Dada Bhuse, an aide of Eknath Shinde who has earlier served as Agriculture Minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government of Sena, NCP and the Congress. Uday Samant is MLA from Ratnagiri and a former NCP leader.
PM Modi extended his greetings to the 18 MLAs by tweeting, “Congratulations to all those who took oath as ministers in Maharashtra government today. It is a great team of people with administrative experience and passion for good governance. I wish them all the best in serving the people of the state”.
Congratulations to all those who took oath as Ministers in the Maharashtra Government today. This team is a great blend of administrative experience and the passion to deliver good governance. My best wishes to them for serving the people of the state.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 9, 2022
After Mr. Shinde was sworn in as chief minister and Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP was appointed as his deputy in June, the opposition criticised the amount of time it took to enlarge the government. This eagerly awaited cabinet enlargement came 40 days after the Uddhav Thackeray-led government was overthrown by a mutiny by the Sena party led by Mr. Shinde.
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