Meet the six Maharashtra ministers who took oath

Till last May, when he was released on bail on medical grounds, no one would have ever thought that he would become a minister in the Maharashtra government again.

Till last May, when he was released on bail on medical grounds, no one would have ever thought that he would become a minister in the Maharashtra government again. On Thursday, Chhagan Bhujbal, 72, was one of the two Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders who were sworn-in as cabinet ministers in the Uddhav Thackeray-led state government.

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“The party has decided the names of two leaders who will be sworn in as ministers today. One of them is mine,” said Bhujbal in Pune on Thursday morning. Bhujbal took oath along with chief of the Shiv Sena, the party he quit in 1991 over the issue of reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBC) and was later involved in a bitter tussle with Sena chief Bal Thackeray, even making a bid to arrest him in connection with the Mumbai riots.

Bhujbal is among the first-rung leaders in the NCP and is also known as the OBC face of the party. Ahead of the state Assembly elections, there were speculations that he was on the verge of joining the Shiv Sena, but that did not happen. Bhujbal stayed in the party, contested the Assembly polls from Yeola and is now one of the senior ministers in the three-party coalition government led by the Shiv Sena.

Son of a vegetable vendor, Bhujbal graduated from Mumbai’s Veermata Jijabai Technical Institute (VJTI), but joined politics at a young age as he was influenced by Bal Thackeray. He climbed up the ranks in party hierarchy, became the mayor of Mumbai twice and later Sena MLA from Mazgaon in Mumbai. He, however, rebelled against the party in 1991, when Sena chief preferred Manohar Joshi as the Opposition leader in the Assembly. In the 1995 Assembly elections, he was defeated by then little known Shiv Sena worker Bala Nandgaonkar.

He made a comeback, got elected to the legislative Council and was made the Opposition leader, with blessings of his political mentor Sharad Pawar. He took the opportunity to launch an attack on the incumbent Shiv Sena-BJP government. By 1999, when the next Assembly elections were held, he was the main target of the Shiv Sena. When Pawar floated the NCP, he picked Bhujbal to be the state president of the new party that was full of Marathas.

Bhujbal was also made the deputy chief minister after the party formed a government with the Congress in 1999. However, he had to quit the position in 2003 after his name was embroiled in a controversy over fake stamp paper, involving Abdul Karim Telgi. He again made a comeback as the Congress-NCP combination returned to power in 2004. He became a minister and was elevated as the deputy chief minister in 2008, when the incumbent in the post, RR Patil, had to resign, following the 26/11 terror attacks. He stayed in the same post as the Congress-NCP returned to power again in 2009.

However, within a year, he had to lose deputy chief ministership to Ajit Pawar. Bhujbal remained public works minister between 2010 and 2014. It was during this tenure that his decisions turned problematic and Maharashtra Sadan controversy and allegations of money laundering put him in trouble.

BALASAHEB THORAT, 66

Constituency: Sangamner, Ahmednagar

Party: Congress

Position in party: Maharashtra Congress chief

Vijay alias Balasaheb Thorat, an eight-term MLA from Sangamner constituency, was recently elected as the legislative party leader.

Considered a Gandhi family loyalist, he has served as a minister in the Congress-NCP government from 1999 to 2014. He has handled revenue, agriculture and school education departments as a minister.

The low-profile leader played a key role in the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections, cementing his position as a significant leader in the party. Earlier this year, he was made a member of the Congress Working Committee, the topmost decision-making body of the party.

Thorat’s father Bhausaheb, a co-operative doyen and a freedom fighter, joined the Congress under the leadership of Yashwantrao Chavan and became an MLA in 1978. Thorat was first elected to the Maharashtra Assembly in 1985 as an independent MLA, but soon after, he joined the Congress and was elected from the party in 1990. Thorat is seen as a non-controversial leader. He is also the arch rival of Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, former leader of opposition and Congress leader from Ahmednagar district, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the Assembly polls.

NITIN RAUT, 67

Constituency: Nagpur North

Party: Congress

Position in party: chairman of Scheduled Caste unit of All India National Congress

The Dalit face of the Congress from Vidarbha, Raut was a minister in the Prithviraj Chavan government until 2014. A four-term MLA, he held the employment guarantee scheme and water conservation department in the Chavan government. He is one of the five working presidents of Maharashtra. Raut, who has been active in Dalit movement for years, has done PhD in Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s thoughts and edits Sankalp magazine dedicated to promotion of Ambedkar’s thoughts. Raut played a key role in ensuring thorough investigation in the Khairlanjee killing case, which led to outrage across the country in September 2006.

Before joining the Congress, Raut had unsuccessfully fought the Assembly and municipal corporation polls in the early 1990s. He is one of the key leaders from Vidarbha, where the Congress is divided, but picked 15 seats in this election.

Eknath Shinde, 55

Constituency: Kopri-Panchpakhadi (Thane)

Party: Shiv Sena

Position in party: Sena leader and Thane district chief

Known for his connect with grassroots workers and access to Matoshree, Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde is Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s ‘go-to man’ in times of crisis. The four-term MLA rose through the Sena ranks, from a worker to the position of a ‘leader’ in the party’s hierarchy, in the past three decades. He is also in-charge of the party’s unit in Thane district.

Shinde joined the Sena as a party worker in the early 1980s, and was elected a shakha pramukh in 1984 in Thane’s Kisan Nagar. He was a corporator in the Thane civic body in 1997, and was elected as an MLA from Thane in 2004. He is is one of the few mass leaders in the Shiv Sena. He emulated his political guru, Sena leader from Thane, the late Anand Dighe.

Belonging to a family of farmers in Satara district, Shinde holds sway in Mumbai’s neighbouring Thane district. He has expanded the party’s base in Palghar district, traditionally dominated by other political parties. He also built the party’s base in neighbouring Kalyan-Dombivli.

Shinde was the leader of opposition till the Sena joined the BJP in Maharashtra in 2014. He is also known to be in favour of the alliance with the BJP. He handled the PWD (MSRDC) and later public health department in the previous government.

Subhash Desai, 77

Member of Legislative Council

Party: Shiv Sena

Position held in party: Sena leader

The veteran Shiv Sena leader is a trusted aide of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. For a long time, Desai assisted Sena founder Bal Thackeray in running the party organisation. Desai guided Uddhav Thackeray when the latter took over the reins of the Sena as the working president in 2003. The Sena loyalist has been a key person to chalk out the alliance between the Shiv Sena and BJP since 2005. The 77-year-old Sena leader been elected to the legislative Assembly thrice; in 1990, 2004, and 2009 from Goregaon constituency in Mumbai. He was elected unopposed as the member of legislative Council in 2016.

Born in Ratnagiri district, Desai came to Mumbai after finishing school, and later started his business. Desai was involved in printing and publishing of Sena mouthpiece Saamana as a trustee, when it started in 1989.

He was one of the five cabinet ministers of the Sena in the previous BJP-led government. He held the industries department. Known to have cordial ties with former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Desai managed to simplify business procedures to push industries in Maharashtra.

Jayant Patil, 57

Party: Nationalist Congress Party

Constituency: Islampur

Position: State NCP president, leader of the NCP legislative party

Considered as one of the trusted aides of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Patil was given the responsibility as the leader of the legislative party after Ajit Pawar’s (nephew of Sharad Pawar) rebellion. Patil was also handpicked to head the state unit in the run-up to the 2019general elections. Seven-term MLA from Islampur Assembly constituency in Sangli, Patil is a Maratha, son of a co-operative doyen and Congress politician, Rajarambapu Patil. Mentored by Pawar, Patil is seen as a first-rung leader in the NCP now. He holds an engineering degree from Mumbai’s Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI).

Articulate and with a clean image, Patil is best known for his stint as the finance minister from October 1999 to December 2008, when he improved the state’s finances. He was also the home minister from December 2008 to November 2009, after his predecessor R R Patil resigned in the wake of the 26/11 attacks. Later, he also worked as the rural development minister from 2009 to 2014.