Maharashtra cabinet: Fadnavis gets home; CM Shinde keeps urban development

Days after the Maharashtra cabinet expansion, portfolios have been allocated to ministers, with chief minister Eknath Shinde keeping the urban development ministry and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis getting the home, finance, water resources, housing and power departments.

Shinde also kept the public works (public projects) and transport departments five days after the first cabinet expansion of Shiv Sena-BJP government in the state.

BJP minister Sudhir Mungantiwar got the portfolio of the forest ministry, which he had handled earlier. Former state BJP president Chandrakant Patil is the new minister for higher and technical education. Patil will also look after parliamentary affairs.

From the Shinde-led group of Shiv Sena rebels, Deepak Kesarkar is the new minister for school education, while Abdul Sattar has been given the agriculture portfolio.