First-time MLA and Cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray has been allocated environment, tourism and protocol.
SIX DAYS after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray expanded his Cabinet, portfolios were allocated to the 36 newly-inducted ministers from Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress on Sunday. While Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar bagged the finance and planning portfolio, his colleague in the NCP, Anil Deshmukh, is the new home minister. First-time MLA and Cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray has been allocated environment, tourism and protocol.
The NCP bagged important portfolios such as home, finance, excise and cooperation and rural development, among others. While Sena retained the agriculture portfolio, Congress, which was seeking an additional key portfolio in rural sector — either agriculture, cooperation or rural development — settled for other departments such as ports, cultural affairs and sports and youth welfare offered by the Sena. The Congress bagged revenue, energy and public works departments.
The announcement was made after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari approved the allocation of portfolios as proposed by Uddhav on Sunday morning. The list was sent to the Governor for approval on Saturday evening.
Senior Sena leaders Subhash Desai, Eknath Shinde, Uday Samant, Dada Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Gulabrao Patil and Anil Parab have been allocated industries, urban development, higher and technical education, agriculture, forest and relief and rehabilitation, water supply and transport portfolios, respectively.
The full list of Ministers with allocated portfolios
On the other hand, senior NCP leaders Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal, Nawab Malik and Jitendra Awhad have been allocated water resources, food and civil supplies, minority development and housing departments, respectively. NCP’s Hasan Mushrif will handle the rural development portfolio.
Why portfolio allocation was delayed
While the allocation of portfolios was delayed due to an apparent disagreement among Sena, NCP and Congress, NCP and Sena had blamed the Governor for not approving the list on Saturday itself and further delaying the process by one more day.
While former CM and senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan has been given the public works department, state party chief Balasaheb Thorat will hold the revenue portfolio. Congress’s Nitin Raut, Vijay Wadettiwar and Amit Deshmukh have got energy, other backward classes and medical education portfolios, respectively.
The full list of Ministers with allocated portfolios
Amid reports of him threatening to resign, Sena legislator and Minister of State (MoS) Abdul Sattar was allocated the revenue and rural development portfolios. The other MoS portfolios were allocated to Congress’ Satej Patil (home urban), Sena’s Shambhuraj Desai (home rural), NCP’s Prajakt Tanpure (urban development) and Aditi Tatkare (industries) as well as Congress’s Vishwajit Kadam (cooperation).
On Monday, Uddhav had expanded the Cabinet by inducting 36 ministers. With 56 MLAs, Sena got 15 berths and NCP, with 54 MLAs, got 16. The Congress, with 44 MLAs, has 12 ministerial berths.
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