Maharashtra cabinet expansion today, 18 ministers likely to take oath

On June 30, Eknath Shinde took oath as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra after Uddhav Thackeray resigned from the post of Chief Minister following a rebellion led by Shinde.

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari will administer the oath of office to the new ministers at the Raj Bhavan at 11 am on Tuesday.

In the first phase of cabinet expansion, 9 ministers each from BJP and Shinde camp are expected to attend. The second phase of expansion could be to add new ministers to the cabinet.

Uday Samant, Dada Bhuse, Sandipan Bhumre, Rajendra Patil Yadravkar, Shambhuraj Desai, Gulabrao Patil, Sanjay Shirsat, Deepak Kesarkar and Bachchu Kadu are among the names who can take oath today from the Shinde camp.

Uday Samant, Gulabrao Patil, Dada Bhuse, Sandipan Bhumre, Shambhuraj Desai, Bacchu Kadu and Rajendra Patil Yedravakar and CM Shinde were all part of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

Whereas Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Suresh Khade, Atul Save, Mangalprabhat Lodha, Vijaykumar Gavit and Ravindra Chavan can be made ministers from BJP.

Chandrakant Patil is the current BJP Maharashtra state president while Atul Save, Sudhir Mungatiwar and Vijaykumar Gavit have all been ministers in previous governments.

The tussle between the BJP and the Shinde-led Shiv Sena will be over important portfolios like the Home Ministry or the Finance Ministry. Whereas the Shinde camp argues that it is because of their rebellion that the current formation is possible and they should get the plum portfolio. BJP leaders will claim that being the largest party by margin, they should get important portfolios.

The opposition NCP and Shiv Sena have been criticizing the incumbent government for not expanding the government and asking them the reason for the delay in cabinet expansion.

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