Ahead of the cabinet expansion, Shinde and the BJP held several meetings. The Chief Minister also visited Delhi to discuss the expansion with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Mumbai: Days after the continuous potshots by the Opposition that the Maharashtra government is being run by only two persons — Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis — a total of 18 MLAs were sworn-in as ministers in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The 18 new ministers comprise nine each from BJP and Shiv Sena. It came 40 days after the Shinde-led faction’s rebellion forced Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to quit.
From the Shiv Sena Dada Bhuse, Sandeepan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil, Sanjay Rathod and Shambhuraje Desai took oath as ministers.
From the BJP it was Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Ravindra Chavhan, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Vijaykumar Gavit and Atul Save.
Ahead of the cabinet expansion, Shinde and the BJP held several meetings. The Chief Minister also visited Delhi to discuss the expansion with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
An MLA form Kothrud, Chandrakant Patil is the state unit chief of the BJP. In the erstwhile Fadnavis-led government, Patil had served as the Revenue minister. From the Shinde camp, Dada Bhuse had earlier served as the Agriculture minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi regime.
Days after the revolt against Uddhav Thackeray, rebel Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde Eknath Shinde was sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on June 30.
After heightened political drama in Maharashtra for over a week, things had settled after the Supreme Court turned down a Shiv Sena plea to stop a floor test ordered by the Governor and subsequently, Uddhav Thackeray quit as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Thackeray announced his decision through a Facebook live and in some time, reached the Governor’s house and submitted his resignation.
