Fadnavis gets big ministries in Shinde’s cabinet allocation

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde expanded his two-minister cabinet by inducting 18 ministers.

Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde expanded his cabinet six weeks after he was sworn in replacing Uddhav Thackeray. Shinde inducted 18 ministers, allocating home and finance to his deputy Devendra Fadnavis while keeping Urban Affairs to himself. 

Allocating big ministries like Home, Revenue and Planning to BJP, it has been seen as a payback from Shinde. He formed the govt with BJP after breaking away with rebel MLAs from Uddhav Thackeray. 

Out of the 18 ministers who were sworn in, nine belong to BJP and nine belong to Shinde’s Shiv Sena. While the numbers seem equal on both sides, BJP’s side still weighs more due to big portfolios.

It is being reported that Deputy CM Fadnavis will also handle the Planning Ministry, while BJP’s Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil will be the new Revenue minister.

BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar has been allocated Forest Ministry, which he held earlier. Higher and technical education has been allotted to former BJP state President Chandrakant Patil.

School education and Agriculture portfolios have been allotted to rebels of Shinde’s faction, Deepak Kaserkar and Abdul Sattar respectively. 

The induction of Sanjay Rathod and Abdul Sattar has stirred a controversy. In the previous Uddhav Thackeray led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) govt, Rathod had to resign due to his name being involved in the death of TikTok star Pooja Chavan. Shinde, however, said that Rathod was given a clean chit in that case during MVA govt.

Meanwhile, names of Sattar’s daughters have been involved in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) scam.

Most of the ministers who have been given portfolios are experienced and have held ministries in the past. 

Water resources, housing and power departments are with BJP. A total of 18 MLAs have been sworn in. Maharashtra cabinet has a total of 43 ministries.

The rest of the ministers would be sworn in after the verdict of the Supreme Court in the petitions demanding disqualification of Shinde and his rebels.  

Uddhav Thackeray had resigned earlier after Shinde broke the Shiv Sena taking away the majority of MLAs with him. 

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