Bhujbal back, 38 ministers take oath in Maharashtra

Congress plans to fill up three cabinet slots later

With the swearing in of 25 Cabinet and 13 ministers of state, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh here today expanded his council of ministers ending eight days of tough bargaining for ministerial berths.

Former Deputy Chief Ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil as also Ajit Pawar, nephew of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, were among the 38 ministers inducted in a two-tier Deshmukh-led Democratic Front ministry.

Deshmukh has kept the ministry three short of the permissible strength of 43 in a deliberate ploy to prevent rebellion in the Congress till the end of the winter session in Nagpur in December.

Of the 25 Cabinet ministers, 14 were from the NCP, eight from the Congress and three independents who had supported the alliance. Vimal Mundada (NCP) is the lone woman minister.

The expansion of the ministry, to accommodate three more ministers, is expected once the Congress central leadership is able to decide on the names from among the senior leaders. "Senior leaders like Govindrao Adik, Rohidas Patil and Kripashankar Singh are still lobbying with the party high command for their induction into the Cabinet," a senior Congress leader told Business Standard.

The chief minister later said portfolios to the ministers would be allocated in a day or two.

The new faces in the Congress-NCP ministry include Ganesh Naik (NCP), Chandrakant Handore (Congress) and former NCP leaders Babanrao Pachpute and Vinay Kore. Sunil Deshmukh, Siddaram Mehetre and Ranjit Kamble (all Congress) and Jaiprakash Dandegaonkar (NCP) are the new ministers of state.

Ministers of state in the previous government Balasaheb Thorat (Congress) and NCP leaders Vijay Gavit, Sunil Tatkare, and Ramraje Nimbalkar were elevated to the Cabinet rank.

Bhujbal, whose name had figured in connection with the Telgi fake stamp-paper scam and who resigned as the deputy chief minister after an attack on a leading media organisation, was the first to be sworn in as a Cabinet minister.

Mohite-Patil, who was replaced by RR Patil as the deputy chief minister in the new ministry, was also administered the oath of office by Governor Mohammed Fazal at a function held at the Azad Maidan.

The Congress opted to induct Handore instead of more senior Janardhan Chandurkar.

Later addressing reporters, Bhujbal said since I had been elected from the Nashik region, there was a tremendous pressure on me to take up a Cabinet post so that I could initiate the development work as promised to the electorate during the campaign.

Old faces like Surupsingh Naik, Patangrao Kadam, Ashok Chavan, Satish Chaturvedi, Anees Ahmed and Vasant Purke (all Congress) and NCP's Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil Suresh Jain, Dilip Valse-Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Vimal Mundada, Nawab Malik, Manohar Naik were among those inducted in the DF ministry.

Union Minister Sunil Dutt's close confidante Baba Siddique and RPI(Athavale)'s Dayanand Mhaske find a place among the ministers of state. Harshvardhan Patil, independent MLA from Indapur, was sworn in as a Cabinet minister.

NCP leader Padmasinh Patil's son Rana Jagjitsinh Patil, who is not a legislator, was inducted as minister of state.

While both the Congress and the NCP has six ministers of state each and one member of the Ramdas Athavale-led RPI.

The Congress dropouts list also includes newspaper baron Rajendra Darda, who, it is believed, may be inducted subsequently, as well as Naseem Khan and Sayyed Ahmed.