MUMBAI: Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Friday expanded his cabinet by inducting 29 more ministers, including 19 of cabinet rank, taking the ministry's strength to 40.
The swearing-in ceremony took place at the Raj Bhavan here where Governor K Sankaranarayanan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers.
Last week, nine NCP ministers had taken oath along with Chief Minister Chavan and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.
Of the total 19 cabinet ministers sworn in on Friday, 14 are from Congress and five from NCP.
Of these, only Varsha Gaikwad and Padmakar Valvi, who were junior ministers in the earlier Ashok Chavan-led government, were promoted to the cabinet rank. Deputy Speaker of state Legislative Assembly Madhukar Chavan and Sanjay Deotale (Congress) are the new faces.
Ten Ministers of State (MOS) were sworn in on Friday of which five were from Congress including four newcomers -- Satej Patil, Rajendra Mulak, Rajendra Gavit and Dattatreya Sawant.
The rest were from the NCP.
The Chief Minister said the first meeting of the Council of Ministers will be held tomorrow while the portfolios will be announced later in the day.
He however, did not specify as when he will fill the three vacancies of the Congress.
The strength of the ministry has to be 43, with Congress-NCP sharing the 23:20 formula.
The Congress list of Cabinet Ministers include Narayan Rane, Patangrao Kadam, Shivajirao Moghe, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Harshwardhan Patil, Balasaheb Thorat, Rajendra Darda, Nasim Khan, Suresh Shetty, Nitin Raut, Madhukar Chavan, Padmakar Valvi, Varsha Gaikwad and Sanjay Deotale.
The NCP list has Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, Anil Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope, Babanrao Pachpute and Hassan Mushrif.
The list of Ministers of State who took oath on Friday include Satej Patil, D P Sawant, Rajendra Mulak, Ranjeet Kamble and Rajendra Gavit from Congress; and Fouziya Khan, Prakash Solanke, Sachin Ahir, Bhaskar Yadav and Gulabrao Devkar from NCP.