Uddhav inducts 35 ministers, Aditya gets Maha Cabinet post

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray expanded his Cabinet by inducting 35 ministers including his son Aditya, comprising 25 of Cabinet and 10 of Minister of State rank, here on Monday.

Aditya Thackeray has been made a Cabinet minister along with other Maha Vikas Aghadi heavyweights like former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, ex-Leader of Opposition in Council Dhananjay Munde, ex-Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil, and NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik.

The Cabinet has three women: NCP's Aditi Tatkare (MoS) and Congress' Varsha Gaikwad and Yashomati Thakur, both Cabinet rank - though the Sena has no woman nominee.

For the first since 2014, the ministry has a four Muslims - Shiv Sena's Abdul Sattar Nabi (MoS), NCP's Malik and Hasan Mushrif, and Congress' Aslam Shaikh, all Cabinet rank.

Other big names include Anil Parab, Vijay Wadettiwar, Jitendra Awhad, Anil Deshmukh, Amit Vilasrao Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope, and MoS Satej Patil, Vishwajeet Kadam and Bachu Kadu.

The new ministers were sworn-in by Governor B.S. Koshyari at the Maharashtra Legislature Complex, Nariman Point.

Since six ministers took the oath on November 28 along with Thackeray, today's expansion has taken the strength of his ministry to 41, plus the Chief Minister.IANS