Published 15:43 IST, December 30th 2019
Brother not made Maharashtra minister, Sanjay Raut skips Aaditya & Ajit Pawar's oathtaking
In what seems like a political snub, senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday did not attend the oath-taking ceremony of the expanded Maharashtra cabinet
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In what seems like a political snub, senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday did not attend the oath-taking ceremony of the expanded cabinet of the Thackeray-led Maharashtra government. Raut who is a close friend of the Thackeray family and is Sena's official spokesperson missed witnessing Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray who was sworn-in as a Cabinet Minister. Incidentally, Raut's younger brother- Sunil Raut has not been given a cabinet post and hence is reportedly miffed with CM Uddhav Thackeray.
Ajit Pawar sworn in as Dy CM
Earlier in the day, during the cabinet expansion oath ceremony, Ajit Pawar once again took oath as Deputy CM after his three-day stint in November with the short-lived Fadnavis government. Shiv Sena's 13 ministers (10 - cabinet, 3 - MoS), NCP's 13 ministers (10 - cabinet, 3 - MoS) and Congress' 10 ministers (8 - cabinet, 2 - MoS) took oath on Monday at 12 PM in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha. This final list was finalised by the CM on Sunday.
- Shiv Sena Ministers: Aaditya Thackeray, Sanjay Rathod, Gulabrao Patil, Dada Bhuse, Sandipan Bhumre, Anil Parab, Uday Samant, Shankarrao Gadakh, Abdul Sattar (MoS), Shamburaj Desai (MoS), Bachu Kadu (MoS), Rajendra Patil-Yedravkar (MoS)
- NCP Ministers: Ajit Pawar (Dy Chief Minister), Dilip Patil, Dhananjay Munde, Anil Deshmukh, Hasan Mushrif, Rajendra Shingne, Nawab Malik, Rajesh Tope, Jitendra Ahwad, Balasaheb Patil, Dattatreya Bharne (MoS), Aditi Tatkare (MoS), Sanjay Bansode (MoS), Prajakt Tanpure (MoS)
- Congress Ministers: Ashok Chavan, Vijay Namdevrao Wadettiwar, Varsha Gaikwad, Sunil Kedar, Amit Deshmukh, Yashomati Thakur, Aslam Sheikh, KC Padvi, Satej Patil, Vishwajeet Kadam
Maharashtra cabinet expansion
The Winter session of the Maharashtra Assembly was held from December 16 to December 21 in Nagpur. The Opposition has slammed the delay, saying not many issues were debated and resolved in the Nagpur Assembly. Maharashtra can have a maximum of 43 ministers. The size of the council of ministers cannot exceed 15 percent of the total number of MLAs, which is 288 in the state.
Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in as the chief minister of Maharashtra on November 28 along with six ministers — two each from alliance partners the Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress. This was preceded by 4-day CM stint by Fadnavis, which fell after Ajit Pawar rescinded his support after the Supreme Court ordered an open ballot floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly immediately. Both Fadnavis and Pawar resigned, ushering in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government with Shiv Sena allying with NCP-Congress after a fallout with BJP over a 50-50 power-sharing and shared CM post.
15:43 IST, December 30th 2019