Maharashtra Cabinet expansion: Eknath Shinde expands 2-member ministry, 18 MLAs take oath as ministers
09 Aug 2022 12:57:57
Mumbai, August 9: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday, expanded his two-member ministry and has inducted 18 ministers. The expansion of the Maharashtra Cabinet witnessed 9 MLAs each from BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction taking oath as ministers in a ceremony at Mumbai's Raj Bhavan.
Later, Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde met with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and staked claim to power.
Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari administered the oath of office to 18 MLAs as ministers. BJP MLAs who got the cabinet berths include Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Radha Krishna Vikhe Patil, Ravindra Chavhan, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Vijaykumar Gavit, and Atul Save.
The rebel Shiv Sena leaders who have been inducted are Dada Bhuse, Shambhuraje Desai, Sandeepan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil, and Sanjay Rathod.
The Maharashtra cabinet expansion took place 41 days after Eknath Shinde took oath as the Chief Minister.
In June, 40 of 55 MLAs of Shiv Sena aligned with Shinde and triggered the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. Subsequently, Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis took oath as deputy CM on June 30.