Nationalist Congress Party’s former Maharashtra unit president Bhaskar Jadhav was inducted as a Cabinet Minister into the Democratic Front (DF) Ministry on Thursday, a day after he was replaced in the party post by State Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare.
Jadhav’s induction into the State Cabinet came less than 24 hours after the NCP appointed Tatkare as the State party chief.A Minister in the State Cabinet till a year ago, Jadhav had been dropped from the DF Cabinet and appointed as the State NCP on June 14, 2013.With NCP appointing Tatkare to head the State party unit, ahead of the Assembly polls, the NCP swiftly rehabilitated Jadhav by making him a Minister.
Both Jadhav and Tatkare come from coastal Konkan region. At the recent extended working committee meeting of the NCP, Jadhav had proposed Tatkare’s name for the post of State unit chief.Jadhav was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan at a brief swearing-in ceremony held at Raj bhavan here on Thursday morning.
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Chairman of Maharashtra legislative Council Shivajirao Deshmukh, Speaker of legislative Assembly Dilip Walse Patil, PWD Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and some more ministers and bureaucrats were among those present at the swearing-in ceremony.