Mumbai: Veering away from his earlier claim of trimming the state Cabinet, new Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on January 25 inducted 53 ministers in the Democratic Front (DF)-government taking the total size of his ministry to 69 as against 58 of the earlier Vilasrao Deshmukh government.

A total of 23 Cabinet ministers, 13 from the Congress and 10 from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), were administered the oath of office by Maharashtra Governor Mohammad Fazal at a simple function at the Raj Bhavan on January 25 morning.

Fifteen members each of the Congress and NCP were also sworn-in as ministers of the state in the coalition government on January 25.

Earlier, Shinde along with 15 others were sworn-in at a function on January 18.

The new faces in the Cabinet among the Congress include former Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Govindrao Adik, former state Chief Minister Shivajirao Patil Nilengakar, Amrish Patel, Vasant Purke and Babasaheb Dhabekar.

PTI