Mumbai, Nov.7 Congress leader Ashok Chavan and Nationalist Congress Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal took oath of office and secrecy as Maharashtra's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively on Saturday evening here at Raj Bhawan.

Ashok Chavan along with 37 other cabinet ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor S C Jamir here at the Raj Bhawan, as the Congress-NCP alliance formed government after a wait of 16 days since poll results of the State Assembly were announced.

The new Government has 18 ministers from the Congress party and 20 from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

The list of ministers taking the oath included-Narayan Rane (Cong) , R.R.Pati (NCP), Patangrao Kadam (Cong.), Shivaji Rao Moghe (Cong.), Ajit Pawar (NCP), Radhakrishan (Cong.), Jayant Patil (NCP), Harshvardhan Patil (Cong.), Ganesh Naik (NCP), Balasahab Thorat, Lakshman Thoble (NCP), Anil Deshmukh (NCP), Jaydutt Shirsagar(NCP), Manohar Naik (NCP), Vijay Kr. Gavit (NCP), Sunil Tatkare (NCP), Ramraje Nimbalkar (NCP);not an MLA at present, Babbanrao Pachpute (NCP), Rajesh Tope (NCP), Rajendra Darda (Cong), Naseem Khan (Cong.), Suresh Shetti (Cong.), Hasan Mushrif (NCP), Nitin Raut (Cong.), Subash Jhanak(Cong.) and others.

Most of the ministers, especially the senior leaders were heard taking oath in Marathi.

Central Minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan was present during the swearing-in ceremony. However, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar skipped the ceremony. (ANI)