Maharashtra portfolios allocated; NCP gets Finance, Home

Mumbai: The much-awaited distribution of portfolios for 32 Cabinet Ministers and ten Ministers of state was carried out by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray here on Sunday with Nationalist Congress Party getting the significant departments like Finance and Home.

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Mr Thackeray will handle General Administration, IT, Information & Public Relations, Law & Judiciary and other departments which have not been given to any other minister.

NCP’s Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who engineered a midnight coup with the BJP and then made a dramatic return, is the new Finance Minister while his party colleague Anil V Deshmukh is the new Home Minister. Fire brand NCP leader Jitendra Awhad bagged the Housing Ministry.

Shiv Sena’s Aditya Thackeray has been assigned Environment, Tourism & Protocol, senior Sena member Subhas Desai will handle Industries and Mining Ministry and Eknath Shinde is the new Urban Development & PWD (Public Undertakings) Minister.

From the Congress, Balasaheb Thorat will handle the Revenue Department, Nitin Raut will take care of Energy Ministry and ex-CM Ashok Chavan has been given the PWD Ministry.

The other important Cabinet portfolios allocated are:

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.

NCP: Chhagan Bhujbal - Food & Civil Supplies, Jayant Patil - Water Resources & Command Area Development, Dhananjay P. Munde - Social Justice & Special Assistance, Dilip Walse-Patil - Labour & State Excise, Nawab M. Malik - Minority Development & Wakf, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Hasan Mushrif - Rural Development, Rajendra Shingane - Food & Drugs Administration, Public Health & Family Welfare, Rajesh Tope - Public Health & Family Welfare, Balasaheb P. Patil - Cooperation & Marketing.

Congress: Varsha Gaikwad - School Education, Sunil Kedar - Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development, Sports & Youth Welfare, Vijay Wadettiwar - OBCs and all other backward classes, nomadic tribes, Khar lands development & Earthquake Rehabilitation, Amit V. Deshmukh - Medical Education & Culture, K C Padvi - Tribal Development, Aslam R. Shaikh - Textiles, Fisheries and Ports Development, Yashomati Thakur-Sonawane - Women & Child Development.

Among the 10 Ministers of State (MoS) are:

Shiv Sena’s Abdul Sattar Nabi who has got 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 allocated Public Works (excluding Public Undertakings), Forests, etc., 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 given Home (Urban) and Vishwajit P Kadam - Agriculture, Cooperation, etc.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising an alliance of Sena-NCP-Congress was sworn-in on November 28 with CM Thackeray and six ministers, followed by a Cabinet expansion on December 30, taking the ministry to the full strength of 43. (UNI)