Maharashtra just got a young cabinet comprising 18 new faces, with the average age of 42 ministers, including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, at 55.38 years.
As many as 13 former ministers were dropped during the cabinet expansion that took place in Nagpur on Sunday with Aditi Tatkare of the NCP as the youngest minister at 36 and Ganesh Naik of the BJP as the oldest minister. The cabinet has four women, up from one in the previous regime.
The number of new faces accounts to 42.8 per cent of the cabinet strength. While the BJP has eight new faces among its 20 ministers, including the CM, five of them are cabinet ministers and three are ministers of state (MoS). The new faces are Nitesh Rane, Shivendraraje Bhosale, Jaikumar Gore, Sanjay Sawakare, Akash Phundkar, while Madhuri Misal, Pankaj Bhoyar and Meghna Bordikar are MoS.
From Shiv Sena, the list of first time ministers are six with four of cabinet rank — Pratap Sarnaik, Sanjay Shrisat, Bharat Gogawale and Prakash Abitkar. Two are MoS — Yogesh Kadam and Ashish Jaiswal. It is important to note that Bharat Gogawale served as the chief whip of Shiv Sena in the previous government.
Similarly, the NCP has four fresh faces as ministers, including Narhari Zirwal, Makrand Patil and Babasaheb Patil of cabinet rank and MoS Indraneel Naik. Zirwal had held the important constitutional post of deputy Speaker during the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the past.
The cabinet also saw an increase in women representation from one in the previous government to four now. However, women representation stays at 10 per cent.Of the four, two are cabinet ministers — BJP’s Pankaja Munde and NCP’s Aditi Tatkare. The other two are MoS belonging to the BJP — Madhuri Misal and Meghna Bordikar.
Speaking to media in Nagpur, CM Fadnavis said, “Our attempt was to give adequate representation to fresh candidates while retaining experienced ones based on merit. At the same time, we ensured the cabinet was inclusive representing all regions, castes and communities.”
Responding on 10 per cent representation to women in cabinet, he said, “In the previous government, we had just one woman minister. Now, we have four. It is 300 per cent higher.” In the coming times, we will ensure greater representation to women, he reassured.
While the average age of the Fadnavis-led ministry is 55.38, the average age of the cabinet ministers, including the CM and two deputies is 57.02. The average age of the six MoS is 45.5 years.
The average age of BJP ministers — 20, including the CM — is the lowest at 54.5 years, followed by that of Shinde-led Shiv Sena at 55.16 years and NCP led by deputy CM Ajit Pawar at 57.4 years. Among the three party leaders, CM Devendra Fadnavis, 54, Eknath Shinde, 60, and Ajit Pawar, 65, make up for the cabinet of 42 ministers.
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