Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray expanded his cabinet on Monday.
Maharashtra finally got a full cabinet of 43 ministers on Monday as 36 leaders of the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) took oath, nearly a month after Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in as the Chief Minister.
But nineteen of the 43 ministers in Maharashtra, including Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray are from political families. Congress, which has 12 ministers in the cabinet, tops the list with eight dynast leaders.
Eight of the twelve Congress ministers who are from political families include Balasaheb Thorat, Ashok Chavan, Amit Deshmukh, Satej Patil.
The NCP has 16 ministers in the cabinet. NCP chief Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar was sworn in as Uddhav Thackeray's deputy on Monday, nearly a month after he sided with the BJP but quit the Devendra Fadnavis's government that collapsed within 80 hours. Six of his party's leaders in the cabinet are also dynasts, including Aditi Tatkare, Dhananjay Munde and Prajakt Tanpure.
The Sena, which has 15 ministers in the cabinet, has the least number of dynasts but Chief Minister and his son are among the three ministers who fall in the category. "Whatever we do, we don't it openly. We have nothing to hide," the Chief Minster told reporters when questioned about the trend.
Monday's cabinet expansion has also left several leaders from all three parties upset.
NCP's Prakash Solanke was about to resign but after much convincing by senior leaders- Ajit Pawar and Jayant Patil - he took back his decision. "I was upset initially because I wanted more for Beed district. I was even going to resign. But Sharad Pawar and everyone convinced me. Now I am fine," he said.
"This is a big family and such things happen and we have spoken to Pawar saab (party chief). There is no issue and things have been sorted," Pawar junior said after speaking to Mr Solanke.
Sena's Sunil Raut, spokesperson Sanjay Raut's brother, was reportedly upset but he later told NDTV that he would follow the orders of party chief.
Senior Congress leaders also conveyed their discomfort to Mallikarjun Khadke and Balasaheb Thorat. "This is a small issue. There are more leaders and less ministers," said Congress's Ashok Chavan on party leaders being upset after they were left out of cabinet expansion.