Maharashtra Cabinet expansion: Swearing-in ceremony in Nagpur today; over 30 MLAs to take oath

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis attends a welcome rally at Nagpur ahead of the swearing-in ceremony on December 15, 2024.
Photo: X/@BJP4Maharashtra

The swearing-in ceremony of new Ministers in Maharashtra, as part of the State’s Cabinet expansion, is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Raj Bhavan in Nagpur on Sunday (December 15, 2024), according to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ office.

The Cabinet expansion comes as the ruling coalition Mahayuti — the BJP, Ekanth Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party — looks to finalise its power-sharing formula ahead of the Winter Session of the State legislature, which is slated to commence on Monday (December 16, 2024) in Nagpur.

Over 30 MLAs are expected to be sworn in as Ministers during the event. The Maharashtra Council of Ministers can accommodate up to 43 members, including CM Fadnavis, and his two deputies, Mr. Shinde and Mr. Pawar, who assumed office on December 5.

The BJP is expected to secure nearly 20 Cabinet positions while the Shiv Sena could get 11 to 12 and the NCP nine to 10, sources say.

The swearing-in ceremony of Cabinet Ministers is taking place in Nagpur after 33 years (the event was last held in the city in 1991).

Mr. Fadnavis is visiting Nagpur, his political home turf, for the first time since assuming the State’s highest office. To mark the occasion, locals organised a grand welcome, with posters adorning the city. They are calling it a celebration of ‘Dev Diwali’. Dev Diwali is traditionally marked all over Maharashtra on the first full moon after Diwali.

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Meanwhile, differences persisted over seat sharing between the allies, with the Shiv Sena reportedly pressing for the home portfolio for Mr. Shinde, a demand Mr. Fadnavis is said to have resisted. When he was Chief Minister between 2014 and 2019 and again as Deputy Chief Minister in the previous Shinde-led Mahayuti government, Mr. Fadnavis kept the Home portfolio with him.

“Mr. Fadnavis is very particular that a few MLAs from Shiv Sena should not be part of his cabinet due to various reasons, a message that his had conveyed to Mr. Shinde,” a senior BJP leader previously told The Hindu.