Maharashtra cabinet expansion: Team Fadnavis takes shape at Grand Mahayuti event

The eagerly awaited expansion of the Maharashtra Cabinet took place on Sunday at the Raj Bhavan in Nagpur, just 10 days after Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the Chief Minister for the third time on December 5.

Key figures from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Ashish Shelar, Chandrakant Patil, Girish Mahajan, Ganesh Naik, Mangal Pratap Lodha, Jaykumar Rawal, Pankaja Munde, and Atul Sawe, took their oaths as ministers.

From Shiv Sena, five leaders, including Dada Bhuse, Shambhuraj Desai, Sanjay Rathod, Gulabrao Patil, and Uday Samant, were sworn in, representing the party of deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde.

Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) saw the induction of Manikrao Kokate, Dattatray Vithoba Bharne, Hasan Mushrif, Aditi Sunil Tatkare, and Dhananjay Munde into the cabinet.

The expansion follows the massive success of the Mahayuti alliance in the November 20 Maharashtra elections, where it won 230 out of 288 seats. The BJP emerged as the dominant force with 132 seats, while Shiv Sena and NCP secured 57 and 41 seats, respectively.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Fadnavis led a vibrant roadshow in Nagpur in celebration of the cabinet expansion. "It is a joyous moment, as after becoming CM, I have returned to my birthplace and workplace. Nagpur is my family, and the welcome here feels like home," he said. Accompanied by his wife Amruta Fadnavis, BJP state chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, and others, Fadnavis took part in the rally aboard a decorated open-top vehicle. The streets were lined with banners welcoming the "son of the soil" back to his hometown.