In the last reshuffle of his Ministry undertaken ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly polls to be held in October this year, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday inducted 13 new Ministers — eight Cabinet ranked ones and five Ministers of State — into the State Cabinet, after dropping six existing Ministers from his Cabinet.
As part of the Cabinet reshuffle, Fadnavis brought in ten Ministers from the BJP, two from the Shiv Sena and one from the RPI (Athavale).This is for the first time that an RPI (Athavale) nominee has been given a berth in the State Cabinet.
As anticipated, the Chief Minister inducted into his Ministry erstwhile senior Congress leader and leader of the Opposition Radhkrishna Vikhe-Patil, erstwhile NCP leader and now a Shiv Sena leader Jaydutta Kshirsagar and BJP’s Mumbai unit president Ashish Shelar, as Cabinet ministers.
Apart from Vikhe-Patil, Kshirsagar and Shelar, the five others whom Fadnavis accommodated in his Ministry as Cabinet Ministers were: Sanjay Kute, Dr Suresh Khade, Dr Anil Bonde, Ashok Uike and Dr Tanaji Sawant.
Similarly, Yogesh Sagar, Avinash Mahatekar, Sanjay alias Bala Bhegade, Dr Parinay Phuke and Atul Save were inducted as Ministers of State in the State Cabinet.
Maharashtra’s Housing Minister Prakash Mehta of the BJP, who is among the six BJP Ministers dropped from the State Cabinet, paid the price for his indictment for his involvement in the alleged irregularities in the permissions given by a slum rehabilitation authority (SRA) project at MP Mills compound at Tardeo in south Mumbai. Lokayukta M L Tahaliyani.
Maharashtra Governor CH Vidyasagar Rao administered the oath of office and secrecy to eight new Cabinet Ministers and five Ministers of State at a swearing-in-ceremony held on the lawns of Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai.
Fadanvis, Union Minister of State Ramdas Athawale, Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagade, senior Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi, several ministers, Mumbai Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar, legislators and bureaucrats were among those present at the swearing-in ceremony.
The State Cabinet re-jig comes ahead of the monsoon session of the Maharashtra Legislature, beginning on Monday.
Vikhe-Patil, whose son Sujay quit the Congress in March this year and won the Lok Sabha polls by a margin of 2.81 lakh votes from Ahmednagar constituency on a BJP ticket, has been rewarded with a ministerial berth by the ruling BJP even before he formally joined the BJP.
Vikhe Patil, who had stepped down Leader of Opposition in March after Sujay had joined the BJP, had resigned as a Congress MLA on June 4.
Kshirsagar, who quit the NCP and joined the ruling Shiv Sena on May 22, also found a place in the State Cabinet.
Shelar, under whose leadership the BJP bagged all the three seats it contested in Mumbai in the recent Lok Sabha polls, made it to the Fadnavis Cabinet.
In his Cabinet reshuffle, Fadnavis has tried to accommodate MLAs from three major regions and Mumbai — Vikhe-Patil ( Ahmednagar), Suresh Khade (Miraj), Sanjay alias Bala Bhegade (Maval), all from western Maharashtra, Shelar, Yogesh Sagar, Avinash Mahatekar (all from Mumbai), Anil Bonde ( Amravati) Tanaji Sawant, Ashok Uike, both Yavatmal), Sanjay Kute ( Buldhana), Dr Parinay. Phuke, all from Vidarbha, Kshirsagar (Beed) and Atul Save (Aurgangabad), both from Marathwada. However, Konkan region and north Maharashtra have gone unrepresented.
