Ajit gets finance as 9 NCP leaders join Maha cabinet

After protracted negotiations, the portfolios of the nine Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ministers in the Maharashtra government have been announced. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar retains the finance portfolio, while Dilip Walse Patil heads the cooperation department and Chhagan Bhujbal takes charge of the food and civil supplies department.

Twelve days after nine Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders took oath as ministers in the Maharashtra government, their portfolios were announced on Friday after protracted negotiations between the three partners in the state’s ruling alliance.

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Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar got finance, a department he held under the previous government as well, and planning portfolios; at the same time assured chief minister Eknath Shinde and his MLAs that all major decisions related to the finance department would be monitored by the CM and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis.

Dilip Walse Patil, who was the home minister when Shinde rebelled and pulled down the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government last year — will now head the cooperation department while Chhagan Bhujbal will handle the food and civil supplies department. Dhananjay Munde will head the agriculture department and the only woman minister in the cabinet, Aditi Tatkare, will be in charge of the women and child welfare department.

The other ministers are Hasan Mushrif (medical education), Dharmarao Atram (food and drugs administration), Sanjay Bansode (sports and youth welfare), and Anil Patil (relief and rehabilitation).

Following the reshuffle, the BJP now has 10 of the 29 cabinet berths, the NCP has nine and Sena has 10. The BJP controls important departments such as home, revenue, water resources (irrigation), energy, housing, public works, and tribal development. The Sena, on the other hand, will look after urban development, social justice, public health, industries, and school education departments.

On July 2, Ajit Pawar and his loyalists rebelled against his uncle and NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar in what was an almost play-by-play repeat of the split in the Shiv Sena last year that brought down the MVA government.

“If one goes by the distribution of portfolios, the BJP has more strategic or politically important departments among the three parties while Shiv Sena and NCP have almost an equal number of such portfolios with them. Thus, the BJP brought Ajit Pawar-led NCP on par with Shinde’s Shiv Sena,” a BJP minister, who did not wish to be named, said.

Shinde and his lawmakers had rebelled against then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray exactly a year ago, citing the alleged high-handedness of Ajit Pawar, who was also the finance minister in the MVA regime. They had then said that they were not getting enough funds from the government for their constituencies.

“One has to make some adjustments in an alliance. I am the chief minister. I will ensure that everybody gets justice. All our MLAs are matured politicians,” Shinde said when asked about the objections raised by some of his MLAs over allocating the finance department to Ajit Pawar.

Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, according to people aware of the matter, also assured Sena MLAs that the CM and him would monitor the allocation of funds to all the departments.

“Shiv Sena was assured that Ajit Pawar would not have a free hand to do what he did during the MVA rule. Decisions related to funds allocation would have to be taken in consultation with Shinde and Fadnavis to ensure that Sena MLAs would not have any grievances,” the BJP leader cited above said.

School education minister and Shiv Sena lawmaker Deepak Kesarkar said all the decisions would have to be approved by the chief minister and thus they were not worried. “I share a good rapport with Ajit dada and he had told me that the decision taken by him would have to be approved by the chief minister. Now, we have a CM who can take decisions.”

The cooperation department, which the BJP leadership gave up reluctantly, will help Ajit Pawar keep his flock together and ensure that most of the NCP legislators and prominent leaders do not side with his uncle, Sharad Pawar. BJP’s Atul Save, who was handling the portfolio until now, will head the housing and other backward classes (OBC) departments in his next assignment.

Two controversial Shiv Sena ministers - Abdul Sattar and Sanjay Rathod – too had to give up the agriculture and food and drug administration portfolios to the NCP’s Munde and Atram respectively. Sattar was given the agricultural marketing and minority affairs departments while Rathod will head the soil and water conservation department.

The BJP heavyweight from Mumbai, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, lost his women and child development department to NCP’s Tatkare, and tourism to party colleague Girish Mahajan who had to concede his medical education to the NCP’s Mushrif.

The Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP taunted the chief minister. “Portfolio allocation @AjitPawarSpeaks dada got what he wanted but CM @mieknathshinde lost the high moral ground as he had blamed dada for not allocating resources to Sena MLAs in the previous MVA government & hence the coup. Now will the CM refer all Sena MLAs files back to dada?” Mahesh Tapase, NCP’s chief spokesperson, tweeted.

Before the portfolios were announced, Ajit Pawar met additional chief secretary (finance) Nitin Kareer on Friday. Later, he also met speaker Rahul Narwekar.

“The powers for allocation of portfolios are with chief minister Ekanth Shinde. We have joined his cabinet and are ready to take up whatever responsibility is being given by him,” he said ahead of the allocations.