Sena joins Fadnavis govt with 10 berths

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, December 5

The BJP and the Shiv Sena have come together again to form a coalition government in Maharashtra after a messy break-up before the Assembly elections less than two months ago.

Governor Vidyasagar Rao administered the oath of office to 20 ministers, including 10 from the BJP. Ten Cabinet ministers, five each from the BJP and the Shiv Sena, were sworn in.

Sources said two ministers of state from the Shiv Sena will be sworn in after the winter session of the Maharashtra Assembly.

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, his family members and senior party leaders attended the oath-taking ceremony.

Cabinet ministers who took the oath were Girish Bapat (BJP), Girish Mahajan (BJP), Diwakar Raote (Shiv Sena), Subhash Desai (Shiv Sena), Ramdas Kadam (Shiv Sena), Eknath Shinde (Shiv Sena), Chandrashekhar Bawankule (BJP), Babanrao Lonikar (BJP), Deepak Sawant (Shiv Sena) and Rajkumar Badole (BJP).

Ministers of state sworn in were Ram Shinde (BJP), Vijay Deshmukh (BJP), Sanjay Rathod (Shiv Sena), Dada Bhuse (Shiv Sena), Vijay Shivtare (Shiv Sena), Deepak Kesarkar (Shiv Sena), Raje Amrish Atram (BJP), Ravindra Waikar (Shiv Sena), Ranjit Patil (BJP) and Pravin Pote (BJP).

Now, the total strength of the Maharashtra Cabinet has gone to 30 including Chief Minister Fadnavis who was sworn in along with nine ministers on October 31.

The portfolios of all ministers will be announced later, the sources said.