india

Updated: Jan 05, 2020 00:08 IST

The 43-member strong cabinet led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray can finally get to work. The long awaited portfolio allocation was finalized late on Saturday evening by the chief minister, who sent the list for the formal approval of Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.

Thackeray has not kept any portfolio for himself other than the general administration department, which traditionally is overseen by the CM.

“The CM finalized the list after holding meetings with both the other parties. It has been sent to the governor for a formal nod,” a senior bureaucrat said. Until late night, the governor’s formal approval was pending.

According to the list approved by the Chief Minister, his Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar will head the finance and planning department and his son and Sena youth wing chief Aaditya Thackeray will be the new environment, tourism and protocol minister.

The new home minister will be NCP’s Anil Deshmukh. As expected, the Shiv Sena has conceded the department to the NCP. Deshmukh, a senior NCP leader from Nagpur, was picked for the crucial job after Ajit Pawar conveyed he would not like to take up this portfolio at this stage. According to NCP insiders, the party top brass as well as Ajit Pawar himself were wary of him handling the home portfolio while the irrigation scam inquiry is still being heard in the High Court. The anti-corruption bureau (ACB) which is conducting the probe comes under the home department.

The urban development department which is considered as a key portfolio along with the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation will be run by Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde.

Amidst the tug of war in the Congress, state chief Balasaheb Thorat has managed to retain the crucial revenue department and former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has got the public works department.

The portfolio allocation indicates that the balance of power in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, made up of the three parties, tilts in favour of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The NCP has not just got for itself most ministerial posts (16) but also retained the most crucial of the departments for its ministers. The Shiv Sena besides the CM has 14 other ministerial posts but has retained fewer important portfolios like urban development, agriculture and industries. The Congress has got 10 ministerial posts and two crucial departments like revenue and PWD.

Besides, DCM with finance, NCP has got important portfolios like home, rural development department (Hasan Mushriff), co-operation (Balasaheb Patil), water resources (Jayant Patil) and social justice (Dhananjay Munde). NCP’s Jitendra Awhad will head housing while Rajesh Tope will handle the health department.

Education will be handled by three different ministers. Congress’ Varsha Gaikwad will head the school education department while Amit Deshmukh will handle medical education. Shiv Sena’s Uday Samant will head higher and technical education.

HT called several ministers but they refused to comment as the portfolio list had not been formally announced.

Shiv Sena, besides urban development, MSRDC, tourism and environment has kept for itself industries department (Subhash Desai), agriculture (Dada Bhuse), transport and parliamentary affairs (Anil Parab), forests (Sanjay Rathod) and water supply and sanitation (Gulabrao Patil).

From the Congress, besides revenue and PWD, the party has got the energy portfolio (Nitin Raut); school education department (Varsha Gaikwad) ; women and child welfare department (Yashomati Thakur); medical education department (Amit Deshmukh); tribal development department (K C Padvi) ; dairy development and animal husbandry (Sunil Kedar) besides two other cabinet portfolios.

Among the ten ministers of state or junior ministers, Congress’ Satej Patil has got home (cities) and Vishwajeet Kadam has got co-operation and agriculture departments.

Nationalist Congress Party’s Aditi Tatkare has industries, tourism, information and publicity department; Prajakt Tanpure has urban development; Dattatray Bharne has forests and GAD; Sanjay Bansode has got MSRDC and environment.

Shiv Sena’s Shambhuraje Desai has got home (rural); Abdul Sattar has got revenue; Bacchu Kadu has got water resources and school education; Rajendra Patil Yadravkar has got public health.

Ministers of state are generally delegated powers by their superiors, the cabinet ministers.