On Friday, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar secured important portfolios for his party, including the Finance and Planning Department for himself, just over two weeks after he and eight other NCP MLAs joined the BJP-Sena coalition in Maharashtra. Deputy Chief Minister and BJP politician Devendra Fadnavis previously handled the portfolio of Finance and Planning.
Dilip Walse-Patil, Dhananjay Munde, Hasan Mushrif, Chhagan Bhujbal, Aditi Tatkare, Anil Patil, Dharmaraobaba Atram, Sanjay Bansode, and the departments of relief and rehabilitation, agriculture, food and drug administration, sports and youth welfare, and ports are also part of the breakaway NCP group.
Five of these departments were previously affiliated with the BJP: Girish Mahajan headed the departments of medical education and sports and youth welfare; Atul Save handled the cooperation department; Mangal Prabhat Lodha handled women's and children's development; and Ravindra Chavan handled food and civil supplies. Tourism and housing, which Lodha and Fadnavis also held, have been given to Mahajan and Save, respectively.
Former Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was in charge of the Relief and Rehabilitation portfolio, although Sanjay Rathod, Abdul Sattar, and Dada Bhuse were in charge of the Food and Drug Administration, Agriculture, and Ports, respectively.
Now, Sattar will run the departments for minorities and marketing. Rathod will run the department for soil and water conservation, and Bhuse will run the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation. Shinde owned all of these stocks in the past.
The NCP group that broke off kept the upper hand in talks and won important ministries linked to the party's rural voters. With a senior leader like Walse-Patil in charge of cooperation, the party is expected to regain control over the cooperative sector, which includes sugar factories, cooperative banks, and financial institutions and has been under attack by the BJP in recent years. The Finance and Planning portfolio makes sure that all departments' finances are in order. Its leaders can also approve more money for places where they have a lot of power.
Additionally, departments like Agriculture, women's and Child Development, Relief and Rehabilitation, and Food and Civil Supplies are likely to boost the party's rural support base. Following the swearing-in of nine NCP MLAs led by Ajit Pawar on July 2, days of uncertainty were followed by the distribution of portfolios. Between meetings, Ajit Pawar and NCP Rajya Sabha member Praful Patel drove to Delhi to meet Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, and a prominent BJP leader.
It is rumoured that the Sena resisted giving important ministries to the NCP, particularly giving Ajit Pawar the Finance and Planning division. Ajit Pawar was the Finance and Planning Minister in 2022, when Shiv Sena MLAs under the leadership of Shinde overthrew the Maha Vikas Aghadi administration by insurrection against the then-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The MLAs had alleged that Ajit Pawar decided to solely support NCP MLAs and ignore the Sena lawmakers.
Image Source: Twitter
© Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved Powered by Vygr Media.
