No Woman, One First-Time MLA: Meet the New Shinde-Fadnavis Cabinet

While 18 MLAs, 9 each from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena took oath, there is no woman in the list.

Forty-one days after the new Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government came to power, the Maharashtra state Cabinet on Tuesday, 9 August, saw the induction of 18 new ministers. Of all the ministers sworn in at the Raj Bhavan ceremony, only one is a first-time minister.

While 18 MLAs – nine each from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena – took oath, there is no woman in the list.

Here are some prominent names in the new state cabinet:

• Sanjay Rathod: The Shiv Sena MLA was the forest minister in the Uddhav Thackeray government and was forced to resign after his name surfaced in connection with the suicide of a TikTok star.

• Chandrakant Patil: The 63-year-old BJP leader is the party's state president. He is a two-term MLC and first-term MLA from western Maharashtra. He was the Revenue and Public Works Department minister during the previous BJP-Shiv Sena government.

• Girish Mahajan: A BJP leader from north Maharashtra, Mahajan has won Assembly elections six consecutive times. He is known for his proximity with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

• Sudhir Mungantiwar: A six-term BJP MLA from Vidarbha's Chandrapur district, Mungantiwar served as the finance and forest minister between 2014 and 2019.

• Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil: Patil is a seven-term MLA from Ahmednagar district. He was the leader of Opposition in Assembly while in Congress during 2014-19 but won the 2019 Assembly election on BJP ticket.

• Ravindra Chavan: A three-term MLA from Thane district, Chavan is a BJP leader and served as a minister of state during 2014-19. He played major role providing logistical support to the Eknath Shinde camp in their revolt against Uddhav Thackeray. He is a close confidante of the deputy Chief Minister.

• Vijaykumar Gavit: 67-year-old Gavit is a five-term MLA, who left the Nationalist Congress Party in 2014 to join the BJP. He is from north Maharashtra's Nandurbar district.

• Vijay Kumar Gavit: He comes from the tribal district Nandurbar. Gavit's daughter, Heena Gavit, is a BJP Lok Sabha MP. Earlier, he was with Sharad Pawar's NCP and worked as the rural development minister in the Congress-NCP government.

• Atul Save: A second-term BJP MLA from Marathwada, Save is a former minister of state.

• Mangal Prabhat Lodha: The BJP MLA is the party's Mumbai city unit president. Lodha, a prominent builder, has declared assets worth Rs 441 crore in the 2019 Assembly election, making him the richest MLA in the state.

• Gulabrao Patil: A four-term Shiv Sena MLA from north Maharashtra's Jalgaon district. He was a minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and joined Eknath Shinde as he rebelled against the party leadership.

• Uday Samant: The 46-year-old is a four-term Shiv Sena MLA from Ratnagiri district. He was a minister in the MVA government.

• Sandipan Bhumre: A five-term Sena MLA from Marathwada's Aurangabad district. He was a Cabinet minister in the previous government.

• Dada Bhuse: Bhuse is a four-term Shiv Sena MLA from north Maharashtra's Nashik district.

• Shambhuraj Desai: 55-year-old Desai is a three-term Sena MLA from Satara district. He was a junior minister in the MVA government.

• Tanaji Sawant: Sawant is a first-term Sena MLA from Osmanabad district. He is a former member of the Legislative Council and a former minister. He is the only first time MLA in the state Cabinet.

• Abdul Sattar: A close confidante of Eknath Shinde, Sattar is a three-term MLA from Marathwada. He was with the Congress in his first two terms and joined the Sena in 2019.

• Deepak Kesarkar: A three-term MLA from Shiv Sena. He is from Sindhudurg district and is a former minister of state.

(With inputs from PTI.)