Expanded Maharashtra ministry a mix of old and new faces, 39 ministers take oath

NAGPUR: A total of 39 legislators from Mahayuti allies were sworn in on Sunday in the first cabinet expansion of the 10-day-old Devendra Fadnavis-led ministry including 16 new faces, while 10 former ministers were excluded.

Hours before the cabinet expansion ceremony, Deputy CM and NCP leader Ajit Pawar said that some of those who took oath will have a tenure of two-and-a-half-years, underlining constrains in accommodating aspirations of hopefuls.

While 33 legislators were sworn in as cabinet ministers, six took oath as ministers of state.

The new council of ministers reflects Fadnavis’ efforts in balancing caste equations including sections of Marathas, OBCs, SCs, and STs and striking a regional balance.

With the new inductees, the strength of the Fadnavis-led ministry has gone up to 42, including the CM and his deputies Eknath Shinde (Shiv Sena) and Ajit Pawar (NCP). One berth was kept vacant.

While the BJP secured 19 ministerial berths by virtue of being the largest among allies, Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party were allotted 11 and 9 berths, respectively.

Governor C P Radhakrishnan administered the oath to the new ministers at a ceremony held on the eve of the state legislature’s winter session in Nagpur.

The allocation of portfolios is awaited.

The BJP, which won the maximum 132 seats in the assembly elections, got the largest chunk of 16 ministers of Cabinet rank and three MoS. Shiv Sena was allotted nine positions as Cabinet ministers and two MoS, while the NCP will have eight ministers of Cabinet rank and a minister of state.

Among the new inductees, four are women, including Pankaja Munde, Madhuri Misal, and Meghna Bordikar of BJP and Aditi Tatkare of NCP. Munde and Tatkare took oath as Cabinet ministers, and Bordikar and Misal as MoS.

Prominent leaders excluded in the new Cabinet are Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil of NCP, and Sudhir Mungantiwar and Vijaykumar Gavit of BJP.

From Shiv Sena, former ministers Tanaji Sawant, Deepak Kesarkar, and Abdul Sattar were not re-inducted. Anil Patil, Sanjay Bandsode, and Dharmarao Baba Atram of NCP also missed out on the second chance.

The swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhavan in Nagpur was conducted after 33 years, the last such event being the cabinet expansion of the Sudhakarrao Naik dispensation in 1991.

Naik had expanded his council of ministers by inducting Shiv Sena rebels Chhagan Bhujbal and Rajendra Gole, who had switched over to the ruling Congress. The Congress’ Beed legislator Jaidutt Kshirsagar was also inducted into the Naik government at the time.

They were administered the oath of office by then Governor C Subramanium.

The Cabinet expansion saw the re-entry of state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Jaykumar Raval, Pankaja Munde, and Ashok Uike who had served as ministers during Fadnavis’ first term from 2014 to 19.

Region-wise, a maximum of nine ministers are from the western Maharashtra region including Madhuri Misal, Makrand Patil, Shivendrasinh Bhosale, Hasan Mushrif, Chandrakant Patil, Shambhuraj Desai, Prakash Abitkar, Jaykumar Gore, and Datta Bharne.

With eight ministers, including Girish Mahajan, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Sanjay Savkare, Gulabrao Patil, Dadaji Bhuse, Jaykumar Rawal, Manikrao Kokate, and Narhari Zirwal, the north Maharashtra comes second.

Seven ministers- Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Sanjay Rathod, Akash Fundkar, Ashok Uike, Indranil Naik, Ashish Jaiswal, and Pankaj Bhoyar are from the Vidarbha region in east Maharashtra.

The Marathwada region will be represented by six ministers namely Pankaja Munde (BJP) and her cousin Dhananjay Munde (NCP), Atul Save, Sanjay Shirsat, Meghana Bordikar, and Babasaheb Patil.

Ganesh Naik, Ashish Shelar, Pratap Sarnaik, and Mangal Prabhat Lodha have been inducted from the Mumbai/Thane region.

The coastal Konkan region is represented by five ministers, including Nitesh Rane, Uday Samant, Yogesh Kadam, Bharat Gogawale, and Aditi Tatkare.

The first-timers from three Mahayuti allies include Yogesh Kadam, Meghna Bordikar, Madhuri Misal, Pankaj Bhoyar, Shivendrasinh Bhosale, Manikrao Kokate, Jaykumar Gore, Narhari Zirwal, Pratap Sarnaik, Bharat Gogawale, Makrand Patil, Nitesh Rane, Akash Fundkar, Babasaheb Patil, Prakash Abitkar, and Sanjay Savkare.

With the induction of NCP’s Babasaheb Patil, the Ahmadpur constituency in Latur district has got representation in the state ministry after 20 years.

Babasaheb Patil, who defeated NCP (SP) leader and former minister Vinayakrao Patil in the November 20 state polls, has become a state cabinet minister for the first time.

In 2009, Babasaheb Patil was elected for the first time from Ahmadpur on the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha ticket. In 2014, he unsuccessfully contested the election on the ticket of the undivided NCP. He won the 2019 elections. (PTI)