Nearly two weeks after inclusion of Ajit Pawar, a rebel leader from Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), as Deputy Chief Minister, the post which he will be sharing with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis. The Maharashtra cabinet was reshuffled on July 14, with former getting Finance and Planning portfolio, the same office which he held during the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
Other NCP leaders who joined the ruling Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis clan got important portfolios such as Food and Civil Supplies was awared to Chhagan Bhujbal. While Dhananjay Munde will be the new Agriculture minister, Dilip Walse-Patil will now overlook the Cooperation department. Munde has replaced Shiv Sena’s Abdul Sattar, who will now handle Minority Development and Wakf, Panan.
This is the first reshuffle in the Maharashtra cabinet since Shinde took over as Chief Minister of the state after toppling the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government in June last.
In the current ruling government, Aditi Tatkare became the first woman minister and will hold the Women and Child Welfare Department.
As per the reports by The Hindu, CM Shinde has expressed strong opposition to the decision of handing Finance portfolio to Pawar. The report added that Mr. Shinde and his party leaders have alleged that during the MVA government, Pawar played a biased role in allocating funds to Shiv Sena MLAs, which affected the development of their constituencies.