Janjivan Bureau / Mumbai : Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar returned as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra for the second time in two months with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray today inducting him into the Cabinet.
Pawar was earlier part of the three-day-old Devendra Fadnavis government which collapsed as he could not take the NCP party with him.
Thackeray also inducted his son Aaditya in the Council of Ministers.
Aaditya, who won from the Worli assembly constituency in Mumbai, is the first member of the family to contest an election.
In all 25 Cabinet Ministers and ten Ministers of State were sworn in today. Team Thackeray consist of a mix of youth and experience. Among the veterans who were drawn from the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress included former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, Dilip Walse-Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Nawab Malik, Jitendra Awhad. The younger set included Varsha Gaikwad, Satej Patil, Amit Deshmukh and Vishwajit Kadam.
Governor B S Koshyari administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers in the Vidhan Bhavan (state legislature) complex.
A notable absentee was former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan of the Congress. According to sources, he is likely to be appointed president of the Maharashtra Congress after Balasaheb Thorat was inducted into the Cabinet.
Chief Minister Thackeray and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar were among those present at the swearing-in ceremony.
Last month six ministers, two each from the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress, had been sworn in along with Uddhav Thackeray.
According to the power-sharing formula between the three parties, the Shiv Sena gets the CM’s post and five 15 ministerial berths, the NCP gets the Deputy Chief Minister’s post and 14 berths and the Congress gets the Speaker’s post and 12 berths.
The Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress have 56, 54 and 44 MLAs, respectively.
The portfolios of the Ministers would be announced soon, according to state government sources.
