Maharashtra cabinet expanded, Narayan Rane included

MUMBAI - The Maharashtra cabinet was expanded here Friday with 29 more faces being sworn in to the two-tier council of ministers, including Congress party strongmen Narayan Rane and Patangrao Kadam.

Governor K. Sankaranarayanan administered the oath of office to the new ministers, including 19 from the Congress and 10 from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

This is the second round of swearing-in after Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar were took oath a week ago. Along with them, nine other NCP ministers, including heavyweights like Chhagan Bhujbal and R.R. Patil were sworn-in.