The Cabinet expansion of the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in Maharashtra is underway in Nagpur, with several new faces joining the council of ministers.
The ministers who took oath on Sunday included Chandrashekhar Bawankule, the head of the BJP’s state unit; Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil; Chandrakant Patil; Ashish Shelar; Pankaja Munde; Ganesh Naik; Jayakumar Rawal; Shivendraraje Bhosale; Atul Save; Ashok Ramaji Uike; Sanjay Savkare; Nitish Rane; Girish Mahajan; Madhuri Misal; and Meghna Bordikar.
The Shinde-Sena ministers who sworn in today were Uday Samant, Gulabrao Patil, Dadaji Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Sanjay Shirsat, Shambhuraj Desai, Pratap Sarnaik, Prakash Abitkar, Ashish Jaiswal and Bharatshet Gogawale.
Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Dattatray Bharne, Aditi Tatkare, Manikrao Kokate, Makarand Patil and Narhari Zirwal were among those who took the oath from Ajit Pawar’s NCP.
It is anticipated that the top leaders of the Mahayuti alliance would provide opportunities to a number of new faces.
According to sources who spoke to media outlets, “the Mahayuti may remove underperforming ministers, which could include four Shinde camp leaders, three BJP leaders and two Ajit Pawar faction leaders who were ministers but may not keep their positions.”
In Maharashtra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President JP Nadda reportedly had a brief meeting on the cabinet expansion.
Fadnavis had discussed the Cabinet expansion with the senior BJP leadership in the nation’s capital earlier this week.
BJP Firm on Home
According to sources, the BJP is most likely to retain the Home Ministry, which was the source of their deadlock with the Shiv Sena. Given that Eknath Shinde was demoted from Chief Minister in the previous administration to Deputy CM in the current one, the Shinde Sena was determined to keep the Home Department.
The Shinde group may be given the portfolios for Urban Development (UD) and the Public Works Department (PWD). It is anticipated that Ajit Pawar will continue to oversee the Finance portfolio.
Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as Chief Minister on December 5, with Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar assuming office as his deputies. The Mahayuti alliance won 230 of the 288 seats in the state in the November 20 Assembly elections, giving them a decisive victory. With 132 seats, the BJP held the top spot, followed by Pawar’s NCP with 41 and Shinde’s Shiv Sena with 57.
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