Leaders of the Mahayuti alliance were sworn in as cabinet ministers in the Maharashtra government during a ceremony at Raj Bhavan in Nagpur on Sunday.
The Mahayuti alliance comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Shiv Sena.
BJP leaders, including state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Ashish Shelar, Ganesh Naik, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Pankaja Munde, Girish Mahajan, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Chandrakant Patil, and Nitesh Rane, took the oath of office.
Representing Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde faction, leaders such as Shambhuraj Desai, Dadaji Dagadu Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Uday Samant, Gulabrao Patil, and Sanjay Shirsat were also sworn in. Additionally, NCP leaders Aditi Tatkare, Dhananjay Munde, and Hasan Mushrif joined the Cabinet.
Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan administered the oath to the newly inducted ministers, in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar.
This Cabinet expansion occurred over two weeks after CM Fadnavis and his two deputies were sworn in on December 5. The Mahayuti alliance, which commands a significant majority in the Assembly, had faced criticism from the opposition for delaying the Cabinet announcement.
In the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly Election, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance secured a landslide victory, winning 235 seats. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 132 seats, while Shiv Sena and the NCP won 57 and 41 seats, respectively.
(ani)