Seven weeks after taking an oath, Maharashtra’s newly appointed Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has formed the state’s new cabinet.

In the new cabinet, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis scored the big ministries of Home and Finance while the BJP minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil will be the new Revenue minister.

Eknath Shinde, who expanded his two-member cabinet on Tuesday by inducting 18 ministers, has kept the Urban Development portfolio with himself.

Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Office has informed about the new development.

Shiv Sena rebels Deepak Kesarkar and Abdul Sattar have been given the ministries of school education and Agriculture.

The BJP minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has been made the Forest minister while the former state BJP president Chandrakant Patil will be the new minister for higher and technical education in the new cabinet announced by Eknath Shinde.

After Shinde’s oath as Maharashtra CM, the NDTV was reported that 25 ministers will be from the BJP while 13 from Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena to be inducted into the new cabinet in Maharashtra.

Apart from Shinde and Fadnavis, the majority of the ministers will be new faces in the new cabinet. The BJP wants to test new faces before it preparations for the next assembly elections in Maharashtra, the NDTV was also reported then.

In the last week of June month, a group of Shiv Sena MLAs rebelled during the staged political drama that forced former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to step down.

Putting an end to the over a week-long political turmoil in Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister on June 30 and Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy overthrowing the then CM Uddhav Thackeray.

The Janata Dal-United leader Upendra Kushwaha on Sunday offered history lessons to the BJP leaders like Sushil Modi and Ravi Shankar Prasad days after Nitish Kumar returned as Bihar CM with the support of Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janta Dal.

Claiming that the BJP was considered an untouchable party before 1995-96 as no political party wanted to associate themselves with them, Kushwaha said the then Samata Party George leaders George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar came to the BJP’s rescue like angels. The limits of ingratitude have been crossed and BJP leaders should recall this history from 1995-96 if there is any gratitude left in them, he said.

They attended the Mumbai session of the BJP and then formed an alliance with the Samata Party. BJP became touchable from untouchable then. Had George-Nitish not been benevolent, there would have been no trace of you today, the JDU leader wrote in a Facebook post in Hindi.

Taking a swipe at the ruling party, the JD(U) leader said that the entire country knows that when BJP is trying to change the history of the country itself, then what is the big deal if the party forget its own history

Upset over Nitish Kumar’s joining Mahagathbandhan camp after breaking alliance with the BJP in Bihar, senior BJP leaders like Sushil Modi and Ravi Shankar Prasad had stated that Kumar should be grateful to the BJP for making him union minister several times and also appointed him a CM despite having lower strength in the state assembly.

After parting ways with Nitish Kumar over some dispute, Upendra Kushwaha, a former union minister and current MLC in Bihar, had formed his own party called the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party

India is set to celebrate 75 glorious years of independence on August 15. As the whole country is gearing up for the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, it’s time to add some flavour to your 76th Independence Day celebrations. And what’s better than tricolour dishes?

This Independence Day, ditch the regular Samosa, Ghevar, and bread pakodas and indulge in these recipes that are inspired by the Indian Flag. Instead of just spending the day watching parades, flag-hoisting ceremonies, and cultural events and gobbling down the usual home-cooked meals, it’s time to try something new, unique, and, of course, delicious this year.

We have come up with tricolour dishes and that too without fire so that you can involve your children in this activity and also inculcate a sense of patriotism in them.

1.Tricolour Lassi

Ingredients

• Two tablespoons of Kesar syrup (for orange colour)
• 3 cups curd (for white colour)
• Two tablespoons of Khus syrup (for green colour)
• One tablespoon of cardamom powder
• Three tablespoon sugar

Method

• Start with whisking the curd. Add sugar and cardamom powder to the curd.
• To create the saffron colour of the flag, mix curd and Kesar syrup and to get the green colour, mix the curd and Khus syrup separately.
• For the white colour keep the curd as is; don’t mix anything with it.
• To make your favourite beverage tricolored, pour the Khus lassi into the glass first, then the plain white lassi, and then the Kesar lassi towards the end.
• To serve chilled, garnish with pistachios.

2. Tricolour Sandwich

Ingredients

• Brown bread slices 8
• Carrots grated 1 cup
• Orange layer
• White bread slices 4
• Eggless mayonnaise 2 tablespoons
• Salt to taste
• Green layer
• Paneer (cottage cheese) grated 1 cup
• Green chutney 4 tablespoons
• Salt to taste

Method

• Mix the carrots, salt, and eggless mayonnaise for the orange layer.
• Mix the cottage cheese, salt, and green chutney to make the green layer. On the worktop, place a slice of brown bread.
• Spread the green layer over it uniformly. Put a slice of white bread on top of it. Top the white bread slice with a brown slice after evenly spreading the orange layer over it. Gently press.
• Cut each sandwich into three fingers and serve immediately.

3. Tricolour Cookies

• All Purpose Flour – 2 Cups
• Unsalted butter/ Clarified Butter (Ghee) – 1 Cup
• Powdered Sugar – 1/2 Cup
• Vanilla Essence – 1 Teaspoon
• Baking Powder – 1/4 Teaspoon
• Food Color Powder (green and orange) – a pinch or two
• Milk – 3/4 Teaspoon
• Nuts of your choice – for garnishing

Method

• Take butter and sugar in a bowl and mix it using a spoon or whisk until it becomes fluffy. Add vanilla essence to it and mix well.
• In a separate bowl sieve flour and add baking powder to it. Mix it well.
• Now add the butter and sugar mixture and mix well. Bring everything together to form the dough. Do not knead.
• Divide the dough into 3 equal parts.
• Take about 1/4 teaspoon of milk in 2 small bowls, add orange food color in one and green in the second. Mix the color well with milk.
• Now add the green color mixture to one part of the dough and mix well until the dough becomes green.
• Do the same with orange color liquid and another part of the dough.
• Keep the third part of the dough plain but add 1/4 teaspoon of plain milk to it so that the dough becomes soft.
• Cover and keep all the dough parts for Tri color cookies in the refrigerator for an hour.
• After an hour remove the Tri-Colour Cookies dough. On a flat surface, sprinkle some flour (or place butter paper) and roll out all the dough one by one.
• Carefully keep the rolled green dough on a chopping board. Place the white part over the green one and then the orange one on the top of the white. Press them lightly.
• Using a knife cut the dough into rectangular pieces.
• Take one rectangular piece at a time, and press them a little. Place the chopped nut in the middle (like Ashoka Chakra).
• Place some Tri Colour cookies on a greased baking tray and bake them in preheated oven at 180 degrees for 12 – 15 minutes. Baking time varies from oven to oven. Keep a check on the color to know when it is done.
• Once it is done, remove it from the oven and let it set for 3-4 minutes. After that place them on a wire rack and let them cool completely.
• Repeat the process until all the Tri-Colour cookies are baked.
• Store them in an air-tight container and enjoy them whenever you want.