Maharashtra Cabinet expansion: Shinde & Fadnavis walk the tightrope, CM pacifies those overlooked

Eighteen ministers, nine from the rebel Sena camp and nine from BJP, take oath of office.
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and the newly-sworn in ministers. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)
For Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, the Cabinet expansion exercise on Tuesday proved to be an exercise in managing expectations as the number of aspirants far outnumbered the 18 ministers sworn in. Nine of the ministers are from the Shinde camp while the rest are from the BJP.

Maharashtra can induct a maximum of 43 ministers, including the CM. Following this round of inductions, the strength of the Council of Ministers will be 20, leaving 23 vacant posts to be filled in the next expansion.
Shinde who was on a tour of Hingoli and Nanded to assess the flood situation returned to Mumbai late last night. After that, the leader of the rebel Shiv Sena faction attended a series of meetings with individuals in his group. Insiders said the CM had to explain to some MLAs to show restraint and not react at the moment. He also impressed upon those who did not make it to the Cabinet to wait for the second round of expansion that is likely to take place after the Monsoon session of the state Assembly.
The 18 ministers set to join the government are Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Chandrakant Patil, Vijaykumar Gavit, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Ravindra Chavhan, Gulabrao Patil, Dadaji Bhuse, Sandipan Bhumre, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar, Shambhuraje Desai, Sanjay Rathod, Tanaji Sawant, and Uday Samant.

The Shinde camp has a total of 50 members. Of them, 40 are Shiv Sena rebels and the rest Independents. The rebels make up the nine from this group who have been made ministers. The Independents, insiders said, were asked to wait till the next cabinet expansion. High on the list is the name of Bacchu Kadu of the Prahar Jan Shakti. He was a minister of state in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.