18 Ministers Sworn Into Maharashtra Cabinet

Mumbai: Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday retained all of Shiv Sena’s eight ministers from the previous Uddhav Thackeray government in his new Cabinet. Rebel Sena MLA Tanaji Sawant is the new addition to the Cabinet.

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. 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.