NCP leader Dhananjay Munde says next Maharashtra chief minister ‘will be ours’

The party is the key constituent in the Uddhav Thackeray-led dispensation, which completed two-and-a-half years in power last month.

A leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, a party in power in Maharashtra in alliance with the Congress and the Shiv Sena, has said the next chief minister will be from the Sharad Pawar-led party. Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray currently holds the top post in the western state.

Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde (HT_PRINT)

The statement was made by Maharashtra’s social justice minister Dhananjay Munde while speaking at a public rally on Saturday. He said, “If a question arises tomorrow regarding whom to hand over the social justice portfolio… whoever would be the next chief minister… The CM will be ours (NCP's) only.”

"The CM will say that let the social justice portfolio remain with us (NCP). This department has earned so much reputation," Munde was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. The minister said the social justice department has become "prestigious" because of his efforts.

The party is the key constituent in the Uddhav Thackeray-led dispensation, which completed two-and-a-half years in power last month.

Munde said he had worked efficiently as the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council in the past.

The NCP holds the important portfolios of Finance, led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, and Home in the state government.

"Earlier, NCP chief Sharad Pawar had appointed me as the opposition leader (in the Maharashtra Legislative Council). No matter how stable and powerful, I had shaken the then government," he added.

(With agency inputs)