Nagpur, Dec 15: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday expanded his Cabinet with the induction of 39 ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) at a simple ceremony held here.
Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers -- 19 from the BJP; 11 of Shiv Sena and nine from the NCP.
The MahaYuti partners had arrived at a 21-12-10 formula for sharing ministerial berths. Of the 39 ministers, 33 are cabinet ministers and 6 are ministers of state.
Fadnavis along with two Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar were sworn in at a grand function held on December 5 at Mumbai in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a galaxy of NDA leaders, representatives of industry and businesses and Bollywood stars.
With Sunday's swearing in, Fadnavis led Cabinet's strength is 42 against 43 which is 15 per cent of the 288-member state Assembly permissible.
BJP has dropped former ministers Sudhir Mungantiwar and Ravindra Chavan.
Similarly, Shiv Sena has denied ministerial berths to former ministers Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar and Deepak Kesarkar.
Further, NCP has dropped a veteran OBC leader and former minister Chhagan Bhujbal and former ministers Dilip Walse-Patil and Dharmaraobaba Atram.
(IANS)