Mumbai | Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today made the second expansion of his cabinet and the most surprising inclusion in the entire cabinet was former Congress MLA Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil.
13 new minister today took the oath at the Raj Bhavan in Mumbai which increases the number of the ministers in the Devendra Fadnavis led the cabinet to 51. NCP rebel Jaydutt Kshirsagar who joined Shiv Sena last month also took oath as minister today.
Maharashtra cabinet expansion: Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil & Ashish Shelar take oath as ministers, in presence of CM Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai. pic.twitter.com/5zurqMZOp3
— ANI (@ANI) June 16, 2019
Vikhe Patil earlier resigned as Congress MLA and the post of leader of the opposition after his son joined the Bhartiya Janata Party and contest the Lok Sabha polls from Ahmednagar on BJP ticket.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra housing minister Prakash Mehta and five other state ministers quit their posts, an official in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said. Besides Mehta, the others who resigned as ministers are Rajkumar Badole, Vishnu Sawra, Dilip Kamble, Praveen Pote and Amrish Atram. The chief minister has accepted their resignations, the official added.
The cabinet expansion took place a day before the monsoon session of the state legislature and four months ahead of the Assembly polls.
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