Maharashtra: CM Fadnavis expands Cabinet; inducts 39 ministers

 Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday expanded his Cabinet with the induction of 39 ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) at a simple ceremony held here.

Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers -- 19 from the BJP; 11 of Shiv Sena and nine from the NCP.

The MahaYuti partners had arrived at a 21-12-10 formula for sharing ministerial berths. Of the 39 ministers, 33 are cabinet ministers and 6 are ministers of state.

Fadnavis along with two Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar were sworn in at a grand function held on December 5 at Mumbai in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a galaxy of NDA leaders, representatives of industry and businesses and Bollywood stars.

With Sunday's swearing in, Fadnavis led Cabinet's strength is 42 against 43 which is 15 per cent of the 288-member state Assembly permissible.

BJP has dropped former ministers Sudhir Mungantiwar and Ravindra Chavan.

Similarly, Shiv Sena has denied ministerial berths to former ministers Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar and Deepak Kesarkar.

Further, NCP has dropped a veteran OBC leader and former minister Chhagan Bhujbal and former ministers Dilip Walse-Patil and Dharmaraobaba Atram.

Bhujbal, who is unhappy over his exclusion, skipped the party rally organised at Nagpur few hours before the cabinet expansion.

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.

Shiv Sena's list comprise Uday Samant, Dada Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Shambhuraj Desai, Gulabrao Patil, Sanjay Shirsat, Bharat Gogawale, Pratap Sarnaik, Prakash Abitkar, Yogesh Kadam and Ashish Jaiswal.

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.

Shiv Sena legislator Narendra Bhondekar from Bhandara constituency in Vidarbha region has resigned from all his posts protesting against not giving him ministerial berth.

This is the first case in which a three-time legislator has expressed his dissent.

The NCP has given ministerial berths to Hasan Mushrif, Aditi Tatkare, Dhananjay Munde, Dattamama Bharne, Narahari Zirwal, Makarand Patil, Babasaheb Patil, Manikrao Kokate and Indranil Naik. It has also adopted a formula of giving ministerial berths for two and half years. This aims to avoid resentment in the party.

The list of cabinet ministers include Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Chandrakant Patil, Girish Mahajan, Gulabrao Patil, Ganesh Naik, Dada Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Dhananjay Munde, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Uday Samant, Jaikumar Rawal, Pankaja, Munde, Atul Save, Ashok Uike, Shambhuraj Desai, Ashish Shelar, Dattamama Bharne, Aditi Tatkare, Shivendra Bhosale, Manikrao Kokate, Jaikumar Gore, Narahari Zirwal, Sanjay Savkare, Sanjay Shirsat, Pratap Sarnaik, Bharat Gogawale, Makarand Patil, Nitesh Rane, Akash Phundkar, Babasaheb Patil and Prakash Abitkar.

The list of ministers of state comprises Madhuri Misal, Ashish Jaiswal, Pankaj Bhoyar, Meghana Bordikar and Indranil Naik.

The region-wise break up of ministers include -- from Mumbai-Thane Ashish Shelar, Mangal Prabhat Lodha and Pratap Sarnaik; from Konkan region - Nitesh Rane, Uday Samant, Bharat Gogawale, Aditi Tatkare and Yogesh Kadam.

Those from the northern Maharashtra comprise Dada Bhuse, Gulabrao Patil, Narahari Zirwal, Girish Mahajan, Jaikumar Rawal and Sanjay Savkare.

The western Maharashtra will be represented by Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Shivendra Bhosale, Shambhuraj Desai, Madhuri Misal, Prakash Abitkar, Dattamama Bharne, Hasan Mushrif and Jaikumar Gore.

The ministers from Marathwada region include Pankaja Munde, Atul Save, Sanjay Shirsat, Babasaheb Patil and Meghana Bordikar.

The Vidarbha region will be represented by Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Ashish Jaiswal, Sanjay Rathod, Ashok Uike, Akash Phundkar and Pankaj Bhoyar.

The swearing in function took place on the eve of a week long winter session starting from Monday, the first after the formation of the MahaYuti government following the recently concluded Assembly election.

This the second time the swearing in function is taking place in Nagpur after 1991 when Chhagan Bhujbal and other five were sworn in.

Bhujbal had staged a rebellion against the Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray and crossed over to the Congress.