In Maharashtra Cabinet Expansion, BJP Gets 19 Berths, Allies Get 20

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis went ahead with his cabinet expansion today -- more than three weeks after the assembly election results were declared. Thirty-nine ministers took oath at a grand programme in Nagpur --- his constituency.  

Maharashtra can have a maximum of 43 ministers. Nineteen of the ministers were from the BJP, eleven from the  Shiv Sena and nine from the NCP - adding Mr Fadnavis and his deputies, 42 berths are full now. 

Mr Fadnavis attended the programme at the Raj Bhavan in Nagpur along with Mr Shinde and Mr Pawar. 

BJP's state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, along with Ashish Shelar, Ganesh Naik, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Pankaja Munde, Girish Mahajan, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Chandrakant Patil, and Nitesh Rane, were among those who took the oath.

Shiv Sena leaders Shambhuraj Desai, Dadaji Dagadu Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Uday Samant, Gulabrao Patil, and Sanjay Shirsat, representing Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's faction, were also sworn in as ministers.

NCP leaders Aditi Tatkare, Dhananjay Munde, and Hasan Mushrif were inducted into the Cabinet as well.

On December 5, Mr Fadnavis had taken oath as the Chief Minister and Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar as his deputies at a programme in Mumbai that was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, other BJP stalwarts and allies. 

The delay in the cabinet expansion was fallout of the tussle over portfolios.

While former Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had to settle for the post of Mr Fadnavis's Deputy this time, his party had been hoping to skim off the cream of the portfolios, including the home ministry, which the BJP was unwilling to accept.

Ever since Mr Fadnavis became Chief Minister for the first time, he has been handling the home portfolio. He handled it even when Mr Shinde was the Chief Minister.

In the assembly election held earlier this year, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance secured a landslide victory, winning 235 seats. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 132 seats, while the Shiv Sena and the NCP scooped up 57 and 41 seats.