| Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) , the Congress' ally in the Democratic Front government has effectively installed party chief Sharad Pawar's nephew at the helm of the state's political affairs. The NCP chief has also taken adequate precautions to keep his loyalists together by disbursing a bouquet of important portfolios amongst them. |
| After much lobbying "" first for having a Congress chief minister and then for crucial portfolios "" the Congress has allocated to the chief minister the urban development, revenue, general administration, information and public relations, earthquake relief, urban land ceiling Act, housing development and law and judiciary portfolios. |
| However, the crucial co-operation department, till now the exclusive domain of the chief minister, has been allocated to the Congress' rival 'maratha' leader Patangrao Kadam, who also gets the rehabilitation and relief works department. |
| The cooperative sector in Maharashtra is effectively run by the powerful sugar barons who control the several cash rich cooperative banks and various sugar and textile factories in the state. |
| Moreover, Ashok Chavan , son of former Union home minister SB Chavan, has been entrusted the industries and mining, cultural affairs and state protocol departments. |
| The NCP chief on the other hand has deftly ensured his nephew Ajit Pawar's empowerment by allocating to him the water resources (except the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Irrigation Corporation), watershed development and water supply and sanitation departments. |
| With most of the irrigation projects (including the MKVDC project that was held by Ajit Pawar in the last government) being over 70 per cent complete in the state, the NCP chief's has chosen to entrust his nephew with the portfolios that will be crucial to effect the privatisation of the water distribution networks in Maharashtra in the months to come. |
| With several dams nearing completion, the levy of user charges for water distributed across the state's hinterlands will assume significance and command the attentions of the private sector. |
| Though the deputy chief minister's post is held by the NCP's R R Patil, the allocation of the crucial rural development department to Vijaysinh Mohite Patil allows the latter to improve his political standing in the state. |
| RR Patil, also finds, his 'Maratha' rival Vijaysinh Mohite Patil (who succeeded Bhujbal as deputy chief minister in Congress chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde's cabinet) taking over his pet rural development portfolio, where through initiatives such as organising an incentivised state-wide cleanliness drive, 'Abbha' as RR Patil is known, became a house hold name in the rural backyards of the state. |
| While Vijaysinh Mohite Patil has taken over rural development and tourism, Bhujbal has been entrusted with Patil's pet beat, the public works department. |
| Speaking to Business Standard, Bhujbal had recently said that he was keen on assuming a portfolio that would allow him to effectively develop the Yeola assembly constituency in Nashik from where he was elected this time. |
| The development of roads in this pre-dominantly backward caste populated region will now become the focus of his attention in addition to the rest of the state. Former state finance minister Jayant Rajaram Patil has retained the finance and planning departments. |
| Within the Congress, cabinet minister Satish Chaturvedi, whose previously held labour department has been conceded to the NCP this time round, has been allocated the textiles, ex-servicemen's welfare and employment and self-employment departments. |
| Former independent supporter of the DF government and marketing minister Harshvardhan Patil, who has formally joined the Congress party has been rewarded with additional portfolios (to marketing) that include employment guarantee scheme, legislative affairs and woman and child welfare departments. |
| NCP chief Sharad Pawar has rewarded party loyalists such as Dilip Walse-Patil with energy (distinct from non-conventional energy) and medial education ministries. Former Shiv Sena strongman from Navi Mumbai Ganesh Naik, who joined the NCP has been rewarded with environment and state excise ministries. |
| NCP's Jalgaon strongman Suresh Dada Jain has been allocated higher and technical education portfolios, while Nawab Mallick has been given the labour portfolio. |
| Other cabinet ministers include Congress MLA Surupsinh Naik (transport, ports, scheduled and nomadic tribes and other backward castes welfare), Vasant Purke (school education, sports and youth welfare), Congress MLA from Nagpur Anees Ahmed (animal husbandry, dairy development and fisheries development), NCP leader from Vidarbha Anil Deshmukh (public works department--pertaining to public institutions), Balasaheb Thorat (agriculture, salt pan lands, watershed development), Vimla Mundada (public health and family welfare), Chandrakant Handore (social justice and vices alleviation), Manoharrao Naik (food and drugs administration and special assistance), Vijaykumar Gavit (tribal welfare), Sunil Tatkare (Food and civil supplies and consumer protection), Rajaram Naik Nimbalkar (Maharashtra Krishna Valley Irrigation Corporation), Babanrao Pachpute (forests) and Vinay Kore (non-conventional energy and horticulture). |
| Amongst the 13 ministers of state, former irrigation minister Padamsinh Patil's son Rana Jagjitsinh Patil (who is neither an MLA nor a member of the legislative council) has been rewarded with the maximum number of portfolios including agriculture, industry, cultural affairs, protocol, employment and self employment and employment guarantee scheme. |
| He will have to get elected from an assembly constituency or nominated to the post of an MLC within six months. |
| Other ministers of state include Suresh Shetty (medical education, higher and technical education, tourism and special assistance), Dharambaba Atram (environment, social justice, scheduled and nomadic tribes and backward castes welfare and woman and child welfare), Sunil Deshmukh (water resources, watershed development, finance and planning, legislative affairs), Rajendra Shingne (revenue and rehabilitation, information and public relations, earthquake rehabilitation and relief, sports and youth welfare and ex-servicemen' s welfare). |
| Also included among the 13 ministers of state are Siddharam Motre (home, prisons and horticulture), Hassan Mushrif (school education, dairy development, dairy development, fisheries, law and judiciary), Ravisheth Patil (public works department, forests, environment and tribal welfare) and Rajesh Tope (urban development, administration) among others. |
| Baba Siddiqui (labour, food and civil supplies, consumer protection, food and drugs administration), Dayanand Mhaske (housing development, slum improvement, repairs and reconstruction, salt pan lands and ports), Jayprakash Dandegaonkar (cooperation, marketing, textiles and anti-vices programmes) and Ranjeet Prataprao Kamble (rural development, public health and family welfare, water supply and sanitation. |
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