Days after Ajit Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and nephew of party chief Sharad Pawar, rebelled along with eight other MLAs and joined the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, the Ajit faction secured several key positions in the Cabinet expansion, reports PTI.
Ajit Pawar was allocated the key Finance and Planning portfolio. As per a statement prior to the official announcement of portfolios, he was briefed by two secretaries of the Finance and Planning Department.
His new office will be on the fifth floor of Mantralaya which will also serve as the office of the deputy chief minister.
According to a statement by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s office, Dhananjay Munde has been given Agriculture, while Dilip Walse-Patil will be the new Cooperation minister.
The other NCP ministers with their allocated ministries are Hasan Mushrif (Medical Education), Chhagan Bhujbal (Food and Civil Supplies), Dharmrao Atram (Food and Drugs Administration), Sanjay Bansode (Sports), Aditi Tatkare (Woman and Child Development) and Anil Patil (Relief, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management).
The present Maharashtra Cabinet, that can have a maximum of 43 members, has nine ministers each from BJP and Eknath Shinde-led BJP as well as NCP, apart from the Chief Minister as well as two Deputy Chief Ministers. There are now 28 cabinet ministers in Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s government but no minister of state.
Following the revolt against his uncle, Ajit was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state. He shares the position with BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.