Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday retained all of Shiv Sena's eight ministers from the previous Uddhav Thackeray government in the first phase of his Cabinet expansion.
Nine legislators from the BJP and nine from the Sena took oath as ministers including state BJP president Chandrakant Patil around 11:15 today in a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan.
Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari administered the oath of office to 18 MLAs as ministers.
The Cabinet expansion comes over 40 days after Chief Minister Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in after a rebellion led by the former toppled the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi-government in the state.
The ministers from the BJP are: Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Ravindra Chavhan, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Vijaykumar Gavit, and Atul Save.
The ministers from the Shiv Sena are: Dada Bhuse, Shambhuraje Desai, Sandeepan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil, and Sanjay Rathaud.
However, there is no woman in the list, a move being criticised by opposition parties. Shinde said that women MLAs would be inducted in the second phase of expansion. Echoing Shinde, Fadnavis added that Uddhav Thackeray didn’t have any woman MLA when he took oath.
The BJP tried to keep the regional balance in mind and added some new faces along with experienced ones. On the other hand, Shinde accommodated seven ministers who were part of the previous Uddhav Thackeray government. He made Deepak Kesarkar the spokesperson of his camp. Tanaji Sawant, a rebel Shiv Sena MLA who had been denied a ministerial berth in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, was sworn in as minister.
Shinde accommodated rebel Sena MLAs and ministers who stood by him despite corruption allegations against them. He inducted Sanjay Rathod, who had to resign from the previous government after his name cropped up in the Tiktok star Pooja Chavan suicide case, into the cabinet.
Meanwhile, Shinde’s decision to induct nine MLAs out of 51 loyalists left many red-faced. As per sources, BJP was ready with a probable list of ministers, but Shinde struggled till the last moment to strike a balance.
“When we moved out of the Uddhav Thackeray government, we were promised ministry. But our names were missing from the list read in the meeting by Shinde. We hope we would be there in the second phase of the expansion. Else, we have to think,” said a Shiv Sena MLA, who joined Shinde camp in Surat.
Rebel Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat is also upset. “Shirsat had a verbal fight with the CM and asked why he was not chosen. Shinde calmed him saying a second expansion will be held next month,” sources said.
The new government came with the support of smaller parties and independent MLAs, but they have been ignored, according to Independent MLA Bacchu Kadu.
No MLC was inducted as minister and no minister of state was sworn in today.
While BJP has inducted Lodha, who hails from Mumbai, the Shinde group hasn't included any legislator from the financial capital, where municipal corporation elections are slated later this year.
On Tuesday morning, the Chief Minister met Shiv Sena legislators backing him, ahead of the expansion of his two-member ministry. The meeting took place at the Sahyadri guest house in south Mumbai.
Shinde is backed by 40 of the 55 Shiv Sena MLAs. With the induction of 18 ministers, the strength of the Maharashtra ministry will become 20, less than half the maximum allowed strength of 43.
On June 30, Shinde took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister and Devendra Fadnavis his deputy. Later, Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde met with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and staked claim to power.
On June 28, Devendra Fadnavis met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and asked him for a floor test. The next day, Uddhav Thackeray offered his resignation to the Governor as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
On August 6, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had said no ministerial-level powers have been given to the secretaries except in quasi-judicial matters. The Opposition in the state had accused the Chief Minister of functioning as a two-member cabinet and having designed the decision-making powers to the bureaucrats. He said these constituencies included those held by Shiv Sena leaders who have now joined Team Shinde.
Dynastic politics in BJP
Fathers of BJP Lok Sabha MPs were sworn in as ministers. While Radhakrishna VikhePatil’s son, Dr Sujay Vikhe Patil, is the BJP Lok Sabha MP from Ahmednagar constituency, Dr Vijay Kumar Gavit’s daughter Dr Heena Gavit is the party’s Lok Sabha MP from Nandurbar.
(With inputs from Sudhir Suryawanshi and PTI)