After lengthy deliberations, the Congress played it safe in Maharashtra and retained most of the members of the erstwhile Ministry, while inducting six new faces in the Prithviraj Chavan-led Cabinet. Children of bigwigs like President Pratibha Patil and Union Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushilkumar Shinde, however, did not get ministerial berths.
After long, the large district of Thane — with 24 Assembly and four Lok Sabha seats — has got representation with the lone Congress MLA Rajendra Gavit being appointed Minister of State for tribal welfare. There is an attempt at maintaining regional and social balance. However, few surprises were evident in the Congress list on Friday, though the portfolios underwent some changes. The Congress' ally, the Nationalist Congress Party, too made some crucial portfolio changes but retained all its Ministers.
Mumbai is represented by Arif Naseem Khan, who is Textiles and Minorities Minister; Varsha Gaikwad, one of the two women in the Council of Ministers, has been elevated to the Cabinet rank in charge of Women and Child portfolio; and Suresh Shetty continues as Minister of Public Health.
Cabinet strength 40
Governor K. Sankaranarayanan administered the oath of office and secrecy to 29 Ministers — including 10 Ministers of State — at a swearing-in ceremony. With this, the strength of the Cabinet goes up to 40. Last week 11 Ministers, including the Chief Minister, took oath. Now the Congress has 14 Ministers plus the Chief Minister and five Ministers of State. The NCP has 15 Ministers plus five Ministers of State.
Mr. Prithviraj Chavan is in charge of Urban Development, Housing, Transport and other departments, while Narayan Rane got Industries, a change from the earlier Revenue Department. Patangrao Kadam will continue with Forests, a department that he is unhappy with.
Power and Finance
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has kept the two key portfolios of Power and Finance with him. R.R. Patil retained the Home Department while the other key portfolio of Irrigation has gone to Sunil Tatkare, a close aide of Mr. Pawar. Mr. Tatkare was the Finance Minister in the earlier regime.
Chhagan Bhujbal, who was unseated as the Deputy Chief Minister, has managed to bag the Tourism portfolio along with the Public Works Department (PWD), while Jayant Patil continues with the Rural Development Ministry. The Revenue Department has gone to Balasaheb Thorat of the Congress, who was the Agriculture Minister in the previous regime, while Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil gets Agriculture.
Other than Mr. Gavit, among the new young faces in the Cabinet is Rajendra Mulak, MLC, who is married to the Chief Minister's relative. His father Bhausaheb Mulak, a former State Minister, from Umred in Nagpur, is a close associate of Mr. Chavan. Mr. Rajendra Mulak was an MLA whose seat became reserved and later he was elected to the Legislative Council. Four-time MLA Sanjay Deotale from Warora in Chandrapur district, senior Congressman Madhukar Chavan from Tulzapur, who was elected Deputy Speaker of the Assembly last year, D.P. Sawant from Nanded North, said to be the former Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan's confidant, and Satej Bunty Patil from Kolhapur, son of Dr. D.Y. Patil, Governor of Tripura, find a place in the Cabinet. While Mr. Deotale has been made Minister for Environment and Madhukar Chavan, Animal Husbandry, the other new comers are Ministers of State.
Three Ministers dropped
Three Ministers from the earlier Cabinet, Abdul Sattar, Vijay Wadettiwar and Subhash Zanak, have been dropped from the Congress side.
The Ministers sworn in are: Mr. Narayan Rane, Dr. Patangrao Kadam, Shivajirao Moghe, Dr. Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Harshavardhan Patil, Balasaheb Thorat, Anil Deshmukh, Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar, Babanrao Pachpute, Rajesh Tope, Rajendra Darda, Naseem Khan, Suresh Shetty, Hasan Mushrif, Dr. Nitin Raut, Madhukarrao Chavan, Padmakar Valvi, Varsha Gaikwad and Sanjay Deotale.
The Ministers of State who were inducted are: Ranjit Kamble, Bhaskar Jadhav, Prakash Solanke, Sachin Ahir, Fauzia Khan, Gulabrao Deokar, Satej Patil, Rajendra Mulak, Rajendra Gavit and D.P. Sawant.
