Maharashtra cabinet expanded; 39 ministers take oath

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra cabinet, led by Devendra Fadnavis, has been expanded. The cabinet formation in Maharashtra was completed three weeks after the election results came out. A total of 39 ministers took the oath, with 19 being from the BJP, 11 from Shiv Sena, and 9 from the NCP. BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule was the first to take the oath in the ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan in Nagpur. The ceremony was held in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar.

In addition to Bawankule, BJP leaders Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Ashish Shelar, Chandrakant Patil, Girish Mahajan, Ganesh Naik, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Jaykumar Rawal, Pankaja Munde, and Atul Save were sworn in as ministers. From the Shiv Sena, Dadaji Bhuse, Shambhuraj Desai, Sanjay Rathod, Gulab Raghunath Patil, and Uday Samant also took the oath as ministers. NCP leaders Manikrao Kokate, Dattatray Vithoba Bharne, Hasan Mushrif, Aditi Sunil Tatkare, and Dhananjay Munde were also sworn in during the ceremony.