In the Maharashtra cabinet expansion on Monday, NCP MLA Ajit Pawar took oath as the deputy chief minister. Shiv Sena's Aaditya Thackeray, in his maiden stint as MLA, has also taken oath as minister in the Maharashtra government led by his father Uddhav Thackeray. Ex-chief minister Ashok Chavan of the Congress was among those elevated to the Uddhav Thackeray-led council of ministers. NCP leaders Dilip Walse Patil, Dhananjay Munde and Congress' Vijay Wadettiwar were sworn in as cabinet ministers.
NCP leaders Dilip Walse Patil, Dhananjay Munde and Congress' Vijay Wadettiwar were sworn in as cabinet ministers. Ten Congress MLAs, including Chavan, joined the Maharashtra council of ministers. The swearing-in took place at 1pm in the Vidhan Bhavan (state legislature) premises, where a total of 36 ministers are likely to take oath. From the Congress' side, Ashok Chavan, K.C. Padvi, Vijay Wadettiwar, Amit Deshmukh, Sunil Kadar, Yashomati Thakur, Varsha Gaikwad and Aslam Sheikh were some of the names.
Ajit Pawar was long touted as the potential deputy chief minister, but had said his party's leadership would decide on his inclusion in the government. Queried on his chances of taking oath on December 30, Pawar said, "I have clarified my stand on this issue. I will follow the directives of the party leadership." Pawar had briefly moved away from the NCP and become deputy chief minister under BJP's Devendra Fadnavis, but the government unravelled in 80 hours and the Baramati MLA came back to mentor Sharad Pawar. This is Pawar's second swearing-in as deputy chief minister.
The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray was formed on November 28. The state cabinet currently has six ministers, besides the chief minister. Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin Raut of the Congress, Eknath Shinde and Subhash Desai of the Shiv Sena, and Jayant Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal of the NCP took oath along with CM Thackeray on November 28.
Maharashtra can have a maximum of 43 ministers. The size of council of ministers cannot exceed 15 per cent of the total number of MLAs, which is 288 in the state. The Shiv Sena last month joined hands with the Congress and NCP, its traditional adversaries, after its alliance with the BJP collapsed over the issue of sharing the chief ministerial post. As per the power-sharing formula decided by the three MVA allies, the Sena will get 15 ministerial berths, excluding the CM's post, the NCP will also get 15 and the Congress 12. The Shiv Sena has 56 MLAs, the NCP-54 and the Congress-44 in the 288-member House.
-Inputs from PTI
