In the much-delayed allocation of portfolios carried out by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) walked away with plum portfolios like Home, Finance, Co-operation, Water Resources, Rural Development and Housing, while the Congress managed to land only a couple of important Ministries like Revenue and Public Works Department (Excluding Public Undertakings).
The Shiv Sena, which is the principal ruling party in the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVS) Government, somewhat got a raw deal in the portfolio distribution exercise that look six-long days since Uddhav Thackeray expanded his Cabinet, as it got very few key portfolios like Urban Development, Public Works ( Public Undertakings), Agriculture and Industries.
While Uddhav Thackeray retained portfolios like General Administration, Information Technology, Law and Judiciary, Information and Public Relations, he assigned his Cabinet minister-son Aditya Thackeray the portfolios of Environment, Tourism and Protocol.
Shiv Sena’s number two man in the State Cabinet Eknath Shinde, whose name had been discussed in the state political circles as a chief ministerial candidate before Uddhav assumed the office, has been given the key Urban Development and Public Works Department (Public Undertakings) portfolios. Shiv Sena’s senior-most leader Subhash Desai has been handed Industries, Mining and Marathi Language portfolios.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who played a key role in cobbling the Sena-NCP-Congress front managed to corner a maximum of high-profile portfolios for his party, in the portfolio distribution that saw a lot of hard-bargaining among the three constituents in the MVA and lobbying among the ministers in the three parties.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who was initially tipped to be Home Minister, has instead personally chosen the Finance and Planning portfolios –the two Ministries that Sr Pawar’s confidant and State NCP president Jayant Patil held earlier.
In place of the Finance and Planning portfolios that he had held in the past and present nine consecutive State budgets in the previous Congress-NCP Government, Jayant Patil has been given Water Resources (Known popularly as Irrigation) and Command Area Development.
In what is being seen as a shrewd move, Sr Pawar has hand-picked his loyalist Minister Anil Deshmukh from Vidarbha. Deshmukh, who was a minister of state in the Shiv Sena-BJP Government in the nineties, later served as both as a Minister of State and Cabinet Minister in the Congress-NCP Government between 2001 and 2014.
Elected to the State Assembly from Katol constituency in Nagpur district, Deshmukh is understood to have been vested with the Home portfolio to deal with former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who is also from Nagpur and held the Home Ministry in the previous BJP-Shiv Sena Government.
The NCP’s other influential leaders like Dilip Walse-Patil, Jitendra Awhad and Hasan Mushrif have been given State Excise & Labour, Housing and Rural Development Ministries respectively. Sr Pawar’s another confidant Chhagan Bhujbal, who was in the past a deputy chief minister in the previous Congress-NCP Government, has been assigned relatively insignificant portfolios of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection.
Dhananjay Munde, estranged nephew of late BJP leader Gopinathrao Munde, has been given relatively low-key portfolio of social justice and special assistance, while low-profile Balasaheb Patil has been vested with co-operation and Marketing portfolios.
NCP’s national spokesperson Nawab Malik has been vested with Minority Development, Aukaf, Skill Development and Enterpreneurship portfolios.
The second-run NCP leaders like Rajesh Tope and Rajendras Shingne have been given portfolios like Public Health & Family Welfare and Food & Drug Administration respectively.
On the Congress front, senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan, who had resigned as the Chief Minister on November 9, 2010 following the expose of the Adarsh society scam, has returned to the State Cabinet after a gap of more than nine years. He has been vested with the Public Works Department (excluding Public Undertakings).
The Congress high command’s decision to vest Chavan with PWD portfolio has rubbed senior party leader from Vidarbha Nitin Raut, who initially held that portfolio, the wrong way. Raut has now been assigned relatively lesser significant portfolio of Energy.
Maharashtra Congress president and senior minister Balasaheb Thorat has been given the important Revenue portfolio, while late Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s son Amit Deshmukh has been vested with the portfolios of Medical Education and Cultural Affairs.
The Congress’ two women Cabinet Minister Yashomati Thakur qnd Varsha Gaikwad have been given Women & Child Development and School Education portfolios respectively.
Former leader of the Opposition in the Assembly and Congress leader from Chandrapur in Vidarbha region Vijay Wadettiwar has been given OBC, Khar land development, Relief and Rehabilitation, while another senior Congress leader KC Padvi has been vested with Tribal development.
The other portfolio allocations made included: Shiv Sena: Dadaji D. Bhuse — Agriculture, Uday Samant — Higher & Technical Education, Sanjay D. Rathod — Forest, Disaster Management, R&R, Gulabrao Patil — Water Supply & Sanitation, Sandipanrao Bhumre – Employment Guarantee & Horticulture, Anil Parab — Transport & Parliamentary Affairs, Shankarrao Gadakh (KSK Part) — Soil & Water Conservation.
Congress: Sunil Kedar – Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development, Sports & Youth Welfare and Aslam R. Shaikh – Textiles, Fisheries and Ports Development.
Among the 10 Ministers of State (MoS) are: Shiv Sena’s Abdul Sattar Nabi who has been given Revenue & Rural Development, Shamburaj Desai — Home (Rural), Omprakash alias Bachu Kadu — Water Resources, Command Area Development, School Education, etc., and Rajendra Yadravkar (Independent MLA) — Public Health, FDA, etc.
NCP’s Dattatray Bharne has been made Minister of State for Public Works (excluding Public Undertakings), Forests, etc., while other ministers of state from the Sharad Pawar-led party are: Sanjay Bansode — Environment, Water Supply & Sanitation, etc., Prajakt Tanpure — Urban Development, Energy, etc., and Aditi S. Tatkare — Industries, Tourism, etc.
Congress’s Satej Patil has been made Minister of State for Home (Urban), while another Mminister of State Vishwajit P. Kadam has been vested with Agriculture, Cooperation, scial Justice and other portfolios.
It may be recalled that on November 28, Uddhav Thackeray had been sworn into office as the Chief Minister along with six Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVS) Ministers —Eknath Shinde, Subhash Desai (both from the Shiv Sena), Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal (both from the NCP), Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin Raut (both from the Congress).
On December 30, Uddhav carried out his first full-fledged expansion of his ministry by inducting Ajit Pawar as his Deputy Chief Minister, Aditya Thackeray as the Cabinet Minister and 34 new Ministers in his Cabinet.
Of the Ministers who were administered oath by the Governor on December 30, 25 were of the Cabinet rank, while the remaining 10 were Ministers of State.
With the induction of 36 new ministers, including the deputy chief minister, the number of ministers in the Uddhav Thackeray Cabinet had risen to 43, including that of the Chief Minister.