Maha Cabinet expansion: Ajit Pawar as Dy CM, Aditya Thackeray as Cabinet minister among 36 to take oath

A total of 36 ministers will be inducted in Maharashtra Cabinet as part of the much-delayed expansion, with NCP leader Ajit Pawar taking oath as Deputy Chief Minister, Aditya Thackeray and 34 others being sworn-in as ministers on Monday.

According to highly placed sources, Aditya Thackeray and 24 other leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance will be sworn-in as Cabinet ministers whereas a total of 10 MLAs including Shiv Sena's Abdul Sattar will become ministers of state.

Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik, legislators Anil Deshmukh, Hasan Mushrif, Rajendra Shingne, Rajesh Tope, Jitendra Awhad, and Balasaheb Patil will take oath as Cabinet ministers from NCP quota.

Former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, Congress MLAs Dilip Walse-Patil, Dhananjay Munde, Vijay Wadettiwar, Sunil Chhatrapal Kedar, Amit Deshmukh, Aslam Shaikh, Yashomati Thakur, and KC Padavi will become part of the Maharashtra Cabinet.

From Shiv Sena, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's son Aditya Thackeray, MLAs Sanjay Rathod, Gulab Raghunath Patil, Dadaji Bhuse, Sandipanrao Bhumre, Anil Parab, and Uday Samant will be sworn in as Cabinet ministers.

Shankarrao Gadakh of Krantikari Shetkari Paksha, who extended his support to the alliance, will also be sworn-in as a Cabinet minister.

Shiv Sena's Abdul Sattar, Shambhuraj Desai, Congress' Satej alias Banti Patil and Vishwajeet Kadam are among the MLAs who will take oath as ministers of state.

Independent MLAs Bachhu Kadu and Rajendra Patil Yadravkar, who supported Shiv Sena after polls, will also be inducted as ministers of state.

On November 28, Uddhav Thackeray took oath as Chief Minister bringing an end to weeks of political instability in the state's politics after Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress stitched a post-poll coalition as Maha Vikas Aghadi. Six other ministers -- two each from NCP, Congress, and Shiv Sena took the oath of office.