7 ministers from Maha in new govt; Sawant, Dhotre new faces

With the defeat of two ministers, in the Lok Sabha elections, two fresh faces from Maharashtra -- Arvind Sawant from the Shiv Sena and Sanjay Dhotre from the BJP -- found place in the Narendra Modi government Thurdsay.

As in the previous government, there are seven ministers from the state this time too.

Hansraj Ahir of the BJP, who was a Minister of State (Home) in the first term of the Modi government, lost election from Chandrapur, while Anant Geete of the Shiv Sena, heavy industries minister, lost from Raigad constituency.

Both were not inducted in the new ministry.

The ministers from Maharashtra who took oath Thursday included Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal and Prakash Javadekar (all three cabinet ministers in the first term), followed by RPI (A) leader Ramdas Athawale and Arvind Sawant, the sole Sena minister.

BJP's Raosaheb Danve and Sanjay Dhotre were also inducted. Danve was a Union minister for a brief period during the first term of the Modi government before he was sent back as the state BJP chief, a post which he is still holding.

Suresh Prabhu, who handled high-profile railways, commerce and civil aviation portfolios in the first term, did not take oath Thursday.

Maharashtra sends 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha, second- highest after Uttar Pradesh. The NDA had won 42 seats in the state in 2014. It won 41 seats this time.

V Muraleedharan, who hails from Kerala but who was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra two years ago, was also sworn in as a minister of state Thursday.