Ending its acrimonious split, Shiv Sena on Friday joined Bhartiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra. Ten Cabinet ministers, five each from Shiv Sena and BJP were sworn-in as Devendra Fadnavis expanded his ministry.
Shiv Sena's Subhash Desai, Divakar Raote, Ramdas Kadam, Eknath shinde and Deepak Sawant were inducted as Cabinet Ministers.
Maharashtra Governor Vidysagar Rao also gave oath to BJP MLA Girish Bapat, Girish Mahajan, Chandrashekhar Baban Kule, Babanrao Lonikar and Raj Kumar Badole as Cabinet Minister.
Along with Cabinet ministers, BJP MLAs Vijay Deshmukh, Ram Shinde, Ranjit Patil, Pravin Pote, Ambrish Raje Atram and Shiv Sena MLAs Sanjay Rathod, Dada Bhuse, Vijay Shivtare, Deepak Kesarkar, Ravindra Vaykar were inducted as Minister of State.
Raote is set to get the Transport ministry, while Sawant may get Health. Industries Ministry, currently headed by BJP leader Prakash Mehta will now be reshuffled and given to Subhash Desai. Eknath Shinde, who had occupied the Leader of Opposition chair will now head the MMRDC. Ramdas Kadam, a close confidante of Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray will get the environment ministry.
Nearly a month after staking claim to the Leader of Opposition's (LoP) post in the Maharashtra Assembly, Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde today resigned from the post.
The two long-time allies had parted ways on December 15, just three weeks before the Maharashtra Assembly elections, which threw up a fractured verdict in the 288-member Legislature.
The BJP subsequently emerged as the single largest party with 122, while the Sena bagged 63 seats. The Congress came third with 42 seats and the NCP finished last with 41
9:00 IST Friday, 5 December 2014
Earlier on Thursday, the coming together of the two saffron parties, which split before the Assembly elections and fought against each other, was announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who held parleys with Shiv Sena leaders in the last few days.
"It is the desire of the people of Maharashtra that BJP and Shiv Sena should be part of the government," Fadnavis had said addressing a joint press conference with senior Sena leaders on Thursday.
The induction of BJP's oldest saffron ally will give the government a clear majority of 184 in a House of 288. The BJP has 121 MLAs while the Shiv Sena 63. The NCP, which has 41 MLAs, had announced outside support to the state government, which was sworn in on October 31.
Just before the assembly elections, Shiv Sena and BJP had broke the 25-year-old alliance as both sides couldn't agree on seat arrangement. BJP subsequently emerged as the single largest party and formed a minority government with outside support given by NCP.
"We will form a coordination committee and will jointly contest zilla parishad and Municipal polls. We are two different parties and we have our own views on various issues," the chief minister had said.
Senior Sena leader Subhash Desai, who was present along with Fadnavis, had said "both the parties have decided to provide a strong government to Maharashtra."
A miffed Sena sat in the opposition and its leader Eknath Shinde was given Leader of Opposition status. But some in BJP were wary of NCP chief Sharad Pawar and were making attempts to rope in Sena.
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