In a major rejig of the Maharashtra cabinet on Friday, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced the allocation of portfolios in light of the addition of newly appointed NCP ministers in the state cabinet, with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar appointed as Finance Minister, and his key aides Dilip Walse Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal being assigned the Cooperation and Food Supplies ministries.
Chief Minister Shinde made the announcement after approval by Governor Ramesh Bais.
Who Has What Portfolio?
Eknath Shinde
Shiv Sena leader and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde holds the portfolios of General Administration, Urban Development, Information and Technology, Information and Public Relations, Transport, Social Justice, Environment and Climate Change, Mining and other unallocated portfolios.
Devendra Fadnavis
Senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will be responsible for the portfolios of Home, Law and Justice, Water Resources and Energy.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar will hold the Finance and Planning portfolio.
Sources had earlier in the day told News18 that the list of ministers to be inducted into the Maharashtra cabinet reached the Raj Bhavan and were awaiting the Governor’s signature. Among the notable allocations, NCP rebel and second Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar, has been assigned the finance portfolio.
NCP Ministers Get New Portfolios
Eight NCP colleagues of Pawar, who were sworn in as ministers on July 2, have received their respective portfolios.
According to the statement, Dhananjay Munde has been appointed as the Minister of Agriculture, while Dilip Walse-Patil will serve as the Cooperation Minister. The remaining NCP ministers and their allocated ministries are Hasan Mushrif (Medical Education), Chhagan Bhujbal (Food and Civil Supplies), Dharmrao Atram (Food and Drugs Administration), Sanjay Bansode (Sports), Aditi Tatkare (Women and Child Development), and Anil Patil (Relief, Rehabilitation, and Disaster Management).
With Tatkare’s inclusion, the Shinde government has made history by appointing a woman MLA to a cabinet position for the first time. In the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, Tatkare previously held the position of Minister of State with multiple portfolios.
With the inclusion of these nine NCP ministers, the total number of cabinet ministers in Maharashtra now stands at 29.
Portfolios of ministers of the Maharashtra Cabinet are as follows:
- Chhagan Bhujbal – Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Ministry
- Diliprao Dattatray Walse-Patil – Cooperation Department
- Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil – Revenue, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying
- Sudhir Sachidanand Mungantiwar- Forestry, cultural activities, and fisheries
- Hasan Mianlal Mushrif – Medical Education
- Chandrakant Bacchu Patil – Higher and Technical Education, Textile Industry and Parliamentary Affairs
- Vijaykumar Krishnarao Gavit- Tribal Development
- Girish Dattatray Mahajan- Village Development and Panchayat Raj, Tourism
- Gulabrao Patil- Water Supply and Sanitation
- Dadaji Dagadu Bhuse- Public Works (Public Works)
- Sanjay Dulichand Rathod- Soil and Water Conservation
- Dhananjay Panditrao Munde – Agriculture
- Sureshbhau Dagadu Khade- Worker
- Sandipan Asaram Bhumre- Employment Guarantee Scheme and Horticulture
- Uday Ravindra Samant- Industry
- Prof. Tanaji Jaywant Sawant- Public Health and Family Welfare
- Ravindra Dattatraya Chavan – Public works (excluding public undertakings),
- Abdul Sattar- Minority Development
- Deepak Vasant Kesarkar- School Education and Marathi Language
- Dharmarao Baba Bhagwantrao Atram – Food and Drug Administration
- Atul Moreshwar Save – Housing, Other Backward Bahujan Welfare
- Shambhuraj Shivajirao Desai- State Excise Duty
- Aditi Sunil Tatkare – Women and Child Development
- Sanjay Baburao Bansode – Sports and Youth Welfare, Bandre
- Mangalprabhat Lodha- Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Innovation
- Anil Patil – Relief and Rehabilitation, Disaster Management.
Maharashtra Cabinet Expansion Tussle
The Shiv Sena MLAs led by Shinde had expressed objections to Pawar being allocated the Finance and Planning portfolio.
Ambadas Danve, Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council and member of the Uddhav faction of Shiv Sena, had said that it would be challenging for the BJP to satisfy everyone. There is an imbalance of the number of MLAs who want to become a minister and actual posts available. There is a lot of discontent among the BJP workers,” he said.
He said allocation of portfolios would pose a difficulty for the BJP, particularly due to the discontent arising from the merger with the NCP.
NCP’s Sharad Pawar Faction Hits Back
Nationalist Congresss Party spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said while “Dada” Ajit Pawar has achieved his desired outcome with the portfolio allocation, Chief Minister Shinde has compromised his moral high ground by previously accusing Pawar of not providing resources to Shiv Sena MLAs in the previous MVA Government, which led to the coup. “Now will the CM refer all Sena MLAs files back to dada?” he taunted in a tweet.
NCP leader Clyde Crasto stated that the BJP has consistently accused Ajit Pawar of involvement in scams and corruption within the cooperative sector in the state. These allegations were also mentioned in a public address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he noted in a tweet.
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