Senior Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde took oath as Maharashtra minister.
Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde today took oath as a minister in Maharashtra along with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray who was sworn-in as the Chief Minister. Among the other leaders who took oath include Nationalist Congress Party's Jayant Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal, Shiv Sena's Subhash Desai and Congress' Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin Raut.
Senior Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde is MLA from Kopri-Pachpakhadi constituency of Thane for four consecutive terms since 2004.
In 2014, Eknath Shinde was elected as the Leader of the Opposition in the state.
He has been the cabinet minister of public health and family welfare in Maharashtra and was elected as Shiv Sena's legislative leader in October 2019 for the second consecutive term.
Eknath Shinde's son Dr Shrikant Shinde is an MP from Kalyan constituency.
Before the oath ceremony today, Mr Shinde said that decision on bullet trains in the state will be decided in the cabinet meeting. "We will do what is in the interests of the people. We will take a decision on the Bullet train project and the Nanar Refinery Project at our cabinet meeting," he said.
The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress have come together under the "Maha Vikas Aghadi" front to form the government in the state. The BJP and the Sena, which fought the last month's Assembly polls in an alliance, secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats, but the alliance broke after the BJP declined to share the chief minister's post.