Maharashtra Cabinet Expansion News Today: Full list of Eknath Shinde’s council of ministers

Maharashtra Cabinet Expansion: Here’s the full list

BJP:

Chandrakant Patil: The 63-year-old senior BJP leader was appointed the state party president in July 2019. With a strong RSS background, Patil started his political career with the party’s student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad. He has represented the Kothrud Assembly constituency in Pune district since 2019.

Sudhir Mungantiwar: In 1995, when the BJP-Shiv Sena government came to power for the first time in Maharashtra, Sudhir Mungantiwar became the minister of tourism and consumer protection. Hailing from the RSS family, he became the vice president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in late 1980s. In 1989 and 1991 he contested the Lok Sabha elections from Chandrapur but lost both times. In 1995, he contested the Assembly seat and won.

Girish Mahajan: Beginning his political career with the ABVP, Mahajan as a student plunged into right-wing party politics to gradually rise in the organisation from grassroots to represent taluka and gram panchayat politics. The six-term MLA representing Jamner constituency in district Jalgaon in North Maharashtra has never seen defeat.

Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil: The 63-year-old joined the BJP in July 2019. He represents Shirdi Assembly seat in Ahmednagar district. Apart from his vast co-operative sector, he runs educational institutions and state of the art hospitals.

Suresh Khade: A Dalit BJP MLA from Miraj constituency of Sangli district in western Maharashtra, Khade started his political career from Republican Party of India (Athawale) in 1999. He later joined the BJP and won the election in 2004 for the party. Despite being one of the senior leaders of the party, he was not given the opportunity in 2014.

Atul Save: The 60-year-old is a BJP MLA from Aurangabad East Assembly constituency. A two-term MLA, Save won the election for the first time in 2014. He was minister in the Devendra Fadnavis- led government. Known to be the BJP’s face in Auranagabad district, BJP hopes to make use of Save ahead of upcoming municipal corporation elections.

The other MLAs who took oath from the BJP are Ravindra Chavhan, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, and Vijaykumar Gavit.

Shiv Sena:

Dadaji Bhuse: The 58-year-old is a four-term MLA from Malegaon constituency in Nasik district and has been MLA since 2004. He is known to be a staunch Shiv Sena worker. He was agriculture minister in the previous MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray.

Shambhuraje Desai: The rebel Sena MLA is a native of Satara district in western Maharashtra. He is three-term MLA from Patan constituency. He was a minister of state for home (rural), finance and planning, state excise, marketing, skill development and entrepreneurship and was also appointed as guardian minister of Washim district in 2020 during the MVA government. After the rebellion, Desai had hit out at Uddhav and the NCP, alleging that even after making him junior minister he had no powers.

Sandipan Bhumre: The 59-year-old represents the Paithan constituency in Aurangabad district. Bhumre, known to be a close aide of Eknath Shinde, was with him throughout the entire rebellion against Uddhav. Bhumre was the minister of horticulture in the previous MVA government.

Uday Samant: A former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)– turned–Shiv Sena leader from Konkan’s Ratnagiri district, Samant was minister of higher and technical education in the previous MVA government led by Uddhav . A key leader from Konkan, he joined the rebellion of Eknath Shinde at the very end.

Tanaji Sawant: The 58-year-old was elected as an MLC for the first time in 2016 from Shiv Sena. From 2014-19, he served as cabinet minister for water conservation. He won the 2019 Assembly election from Paranda constituency in Osmanabad district. Denied a ministerial berth in 2019 by the MVA government, he has since been unhappy and openly boycotted Shiv Sena meetings in the district. He was among the first to join Eknath Shinde after he revolted.

Deepak Kesarkar: The 67-year-old is a Shiv Sena MLA from Sawantwadi in Konkan’s Sindhudurg district. Kesarkar, a former loyalist of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, won the Assembly election from Sawantwadi in 2009 as an NCP candidate. He shifted to Shiv Sena in 2014 and won the election as a Shiv Sena candidate. After the rebellion by Eknath Shinde, Kesarkar had first pledged allegiance to Uddhav but later shifted sides and joined the Shinde camp.

Gulabrao Patil: Known as an aggressive face of the Shiv Sena from north Maharashtra, Patil represents Jalgaon (Rural) assembly constituency. He was a water supply and sanitation minister in the previous MVA government and had initially not joined the Shinde camp’s rebellion.

Abdul Sattar: The 56-year-old is a three-time MLA from Sillod in Aurangabad, having won the seat on a Sena ticket in 2019. The lone Muslim face in the Cabinet, Sattar, who started his political career in the Congress, was a minister of state in the previous MVA as well as Congress-NCP government. A day before the swearing in, Sattar found himself embroiled in a controversy after the names of his two daughters appeared among the list of candidates who have been debarred by the Maharashtra State Council of Exams (MSCE) for their involvement in the teacher eligibility test (TET) scam.

Sanjay Rathod: The 51-year-old is a four-term MLA from Digras constituency of Yavatmal district. Rathod, who is considered a strong man from Digras, was Minister of State for Revenue during the BJP-Shiv Sena government between 2014-19 and has held positions of guardian minister for Yavatmal and Washim district. During the MVA government in 2019, he was appointed as minister of forest, disaster management, relief and rehabilitation, but had to resign in 2021 after the controversial Pooja Chavan suicide case.