Maharashtra cabinet expansion: BJP chief Bawankule, Shiv Sena's Uday Samant, others take oath as ministers

Nagpur (Maharashtra) [India], December 15 (ANI): 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's state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, along with Ashish Shelar, Ganesh Naik, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Pankaja Munde, Girish Mahajan, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Chandrakant Patil, and Nitesh Rane, were among those who took the oath.
Shiv Sena leaders Shambhuraj Desai, Dadaji Dagadu Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Uday Samant, Gulabrao Patil, and Sanjay Shirsat, representing Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's faction, were also sworn in as ministers.
NCP leaders Aditi Tatkare, Dhananjay Munde, and Hasan Mushrif were inducted into the Cabinet as well.
Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan administered the oath to the new ministers.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar attended the swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhavan.
The Cabinet expansion comes more than two weeks after CM Fadnavis and his two deputies were sworn in on December 5. The Mahayuti alliance had faced criticism from the opposition for delaying the announcement of its Cabinet despite holding a significant majority.
In the Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance secured a landslide victory, winning 235 seats. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 132 seats, while the Shiv Sena and the NCP secured 57 and 41 seats, respectively. (ANI)