MUMBAI: NCP leader Ajit Pawar is all set to take over as deputy chief minister (DCM) after the two-week winter session of the state legislature commences at Nagpur on December 16.

A senior NCP leader told TOI that Pawar will be inducted as DCM when chief minister Uddhav Thackeray expands his cabinet after the winter session of the state legislature. “There was a proposal to expand the cabinet in the first week of December. However, now it has been proposed to expand the cabinet after December 21. Then Ajit Pawar will be inducted as DCM,” he said.

The NCP leader admitted that there was a dispute over the DCM post between Congress and NCP, but it was settled by Congress leader Ahmed Patel and NCP president Sharad Pawar. “Since the first meeting among Congress and NCP leaders in New Delhi in the second week of November, Congress has been insisting on the DCM post. At one stage, Congress even threatened to walk out from Maha Vikas Aghadi. However, following intervention of the Congress leadership, the dispute was resolved.”

The NCP leader said at the first meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, it was agreed that the Speaker’s post will be allotted to Congress, while NCP would get the DCM post. But then during the November 12 meeting, Congress submitted that it was not keen on Speaker’s post, instead would prefer the DCM post. “Both Congress and NCP made it a prestige issue. Ultimately, it was resolved and it was agreed that Congress will accept Speaker’s post and the DCM post will go to NCP,” he added.

Within NCP too, there were many claimants for the DCM post—Ajit Pawar and Jayant Patil were both insisting on the same post. Now, the matter has been settled and the former will be the new DCM.

A Congress leader said that even as a decision of cabinet berth-sharing is over, the row over portfolios is yet to be finalized, as a result, cabinet expansion has been delayed. “We expect that it will be resolved soon,” he said.

Thackeray on Sunday said portfolios would initially be shared between him and the six declared ministers. “This is not final. There will soon be an expansion of the cabinet,” the CM said.

