Guwahati: 18 MLAs were sworn in as ministers on Tuesday at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai, nine from the BJP and nine from the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Eighteen MLAs were sworn in as ministers by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
The expansion of the Cabinet comes more than 40 days after Chief Minister Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took office following the overthrow of the state’s Maha Vikas Aghadi-led administration by the former’s insurrection.
According to an ANI report, the BJP MLAs set to get cabinet berths include- Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Radha Krishna Vikhe Patil, Ravindra Chavhan, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Vijaykumar Gavit and Atul Save.
Leaders from Shiv Sena inducted include Dada Bhuse, Shambhuraje Desai, Sandeepan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil and Sanjay Rathod.
MLAs from the Eknath Shinde camp came to Sahyadri Guest House in Mumbai this morning to attend a meeting.
Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as Shinde’s deputy and the next chief minister of Maharashtra on June 30. Later, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari met with Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde to stake their claims to authority.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had stated on August 6 that secretaries had not been given ministerial-level authority outside of quasi-judicial affairs. The Chief Minister was accused by the state’s opposition of running a two-member government and giving the bureaucrats the authority to make decisions. These constituencies, according to him, included some that were held by Team Shinde-affiliated Shiv Sena officials.