Shinde keeps urban development, Fadnavis gets home, finance portfolios

The allocation of the portfolios was made five days after the first expansion of Shinde’s council of ministers

Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde retained urban development, public works, and transport portfolios and allotted home, finance, water resources, housing, and power departments to his deputy Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday. The allocation of the portfolios was done five days after the first expansion of Shinde’s council of ministers.

Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis in Navi Mumbai. (HT PHOTO)

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil was allotted revenue and animal husbandry departments and his party colleague Chandrakant Patil higher and technical education, parliamentary affairs, and textile departments.

Girish Mahajan, a close aide to Fadnavis, will be in charge of rural development, medical education, sports, and youth welfare. The agriculture department has been assigned to Abdul Sattar from Shinde’s faction of Shiv Sena and BJP’s Mangal Prabhat Lodha tourism, women and child welfare, and skill development and entrepreneurship departments.

Shinde became the chief minister with the BJP’s help after he rebelled against his predecessor, Udhav Thackeray, and helped bring down the previous government, which included Congress and Nationalist Congress Party.