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Rane to be sworn in at 1315 hours

Decks were finally cleared for the swearing in of Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane as the eleventh chief minister of the state after Governor Dr P C Alexander invited him to lead the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government and prove majority on the floor of the house within 21 days, setting to rest the political tornado which lasted for over 36 hours.

Along with Rane, who succeeds his long-time political rival Manohar Joshi, seven ministers will also be sworn in. Out of these two are cabinet rank ministers while five will be of state rank. The cabinet ministers are Sudhir Mungetewar and Vishnu Savra both of the BJP while state ministers will be Kalidas Kolambkar, Badamrao Pandit, Manisha Nimkar, Uttam Khandare (all of the Shiv Sena) and Udayan Raje Bhosale (of the BJP).

Sudhir Mungetewar and Vishnu Savra will replace Jagannath Patil and A T Pawar both of the BJP, while Gajanan Kirtikar of the Shiv Sena has been elevated to the cabinet rank. His place as the minister of state for home will be taken by Kalidas Kolambkar, Rane said.

Meanwhile, Rane has claimed the support of 25 independent legislators, out of whom 16 have already endorsed their support in writing to the alliance government. The independent legislators will be meeting today at the residence of Minister of State for Education Anil Deshmukh.

UNI

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