Nagpur/Mumbai: Close on the heels of marathon expansion in Union Cabinet, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis too followed the suit. BJP-Sena government in the state inducted 10 new faces in the cabinet. As many as 10 new ministers including 2 from Shiv Sena took oath in Mumbai on Friday morning at 9.15 am. Interestingly Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray remained absent from the induction ceremony.
New faces include Bharatiya Janata Party’s Pandurang Pundalik Fundkar, Madan Madhukarrao Yerawar, Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar, Jaykumar Rawal, Ravindra Chavan, Subhash Sureshchandra Deshmukh.
From Shiv Sena, Arjun Khotkar and Gulab Raghunath Patil have been inducted as the new cabinet ministers. Sadabhau Khot and Mahadev Jankar are other names who found berth in the new cabinet.
Sena MLAs Arjun Khotkar, from Jalna in Marathwada region, and Gulabrao Patil, from Jalgaon in north Maharashtra, were inducted in the ministry as junior ministers.
Patil hails from former BJP minister Eknath Khadse’s home turf Jalgaon, while Khotkar belongs to Jalna, the native district of state BJP president Raosaheb Danve.
This Cabinet reshuffle ahead of the Monsoon session starting July 18 and two days before Fadnavis begins his four-day Russia tour on July 10. None of the ministers have been dropped in the reshuffle.
