10 leaders each from BJP Shiv Sena found the place in the Ministry.
Nagpur: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday expanded his Ministry with 20 members, 10 each from BJP and Shiv Sena, taking oath at a ceremony held in Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai. Governor C Vidyasagar Rao administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly inducted Ministers.
Chandrashekhar Bawankule, the BJP MLA from Kamptee in Nagpur District, was among the newly inducted Ministers.
The Shiv Sena leaders who found the place in Fadnavis Ministry as Cabinet Ministers are:
• Subhash Desai — Industry
• Eknath Shinde — MSRDC
• Ramdas Kadam — Environment
• Divakar Raote – Transport
• Deepak Sawant — Health.
The BJP leaders who were inducted as Cabinet Ministers are:
• Girish Mahajan – Irrigation
• Girish Bapat – Food and Drugs Administration, Parliamentary Affairs
• Baban Lonikar – Water Supply
• Rajkumar Badole – Social Justice
• Chandrashekhar Bawankule – Energy
The Ministers of State from Shiv Sena are:
• Ravindra Waikar
• Deepak Kesarkar
• Vijay Shivtare
• Dada Bhuse
• Sanjay Rathod
The Ministers of State from BJP are:
• Pravin Pote
• Ranjit Patil
• Ambarishrao Atram
• Vijaykumar Deshmukh
• Ram Shinde
The Portfolios of Ministers of State were, at present, not allotted by the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The Ministry expansion comes after Shiv Sena decided to “patch up” with former ally and join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government in Maharashtra. With Sena joining hands, Fadnavis Government will no longer be in minority in the State Assembly and will have a strength of 184 in the 287-member Assembly (one BJP legislator died soon after the poll results were announced in October). The BJP has a strength of 121 legislators and the Shiv Sena 63.
The two parties – allies for 25 years – split on September 25 after a bitter spat and fought the Assembly elections separately. “The people voted against the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (alliance). Our decision has been taken respecting the public sentiments in this context, and we have decided to form the alliance government,” Fadnavis said, putting the lid on over two months of speculation whether the two parties would unite.
Another expansion is also likely on cards after the Winter Session in Nagpur. A decision on including other smaller alliance partners in the cabinet would be taken in due course, Fadnavis said.
