Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was given the Finance portfolio in the state cabinet expansion, while NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal secured the Food and Civil Supply portfolio. Five of these departments were earlier with the BJP: Medical Education and Sports and Youth Welfare were both with Girish Mahajan, Cooperation was with Atul Save, Women and Child Development with Mangal Prabhat Lodha, and Food and Civil Supplies with Ravindra Chavan. The cabinet expansion comes 12 days after nine MLAs of the NCP, including Pawar, were sworn in as ministers in the present Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government.
Following the cabinet expansion, Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar arrived at NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s residence Silver Oak in Mumbai late Friday. “I went to Silver Oak on Friday evening to meet Pratibha Pawar (Sharad Pawar’s wife) since she underwent surgery. Pawar Saheb and Supriya (Sule) were also there. Politics is there, but family has special significance,” Pawar said today.
In other news, the Supreme Court today issued a notice on a plea of Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of Shiv Sena seeking direction to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar to take an expeditious decision on the disqualification petitions pending against rebel MLAs led by Eknath Shinde. The SC has sought a response to the plea in two weeks, ANI reported.
