Sharad Pawar’s NCP set to wield considerable power in Maharashtra Cabinet

Mumbai: Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is expected to be the biggest gainer in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra ministry. Its ministers are expected to bag some key cabinet portfolios including that of home, finance, irrigation and finance.

Sources said that Sharad Pawar has worked the entire deal to a nicety and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has accepted his proposals. It should be stated here that Sharad Pawar was the man responsible for bringing the Shiv Sena and the Congress together even though the two parties are ideologically poles apart.

The post of the deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra also belongs to the NCP. In terms of numbers too, they have the edge over the Shiv Sena, with 16 berths compared to the latter’s 15.

Sources said more names have emerged in course of the ongoing discussions of portfolios.

They said that NCP’s Anil Deshmukh, will get the crucial home portfolio, urban development will go to Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde, Industries to Sena’s Subhash Desai, the Revenue berth to Congress’s Balasaheb Thorat, Labour and Excise department to Dilip Walse Patil of the NCP and Housing to Jeetendra Ahwad also of the NCP. The Congress is supposed to get the Medical Education Ministry, but the name has not been finalised yet.

NCP’s Dhananjay Munde is likely to get the Ministry of Social Justice while Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar will be in charge of the Finance portfolio.

Apartment from the General Administration department, it is yet to be decided which portfolios Thackeray would handle.

The Congress is getting the least number of berths and ministries as it is the smallest party in the alliance in terms of the number of MLAs. The party won 44 of Maharashtra’s 288 seats, against Shiv Sena’s tally of 56 and NCP’s 54 respectively.

The key Revenue portfolio has been earmarked for its state chief Balasaheb Thorat, PWD for former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan. The Congress is keen to get the agriculture portfolio, but it will not happen, sources stated.

The delay in finalisation and announcement of porfolios is mainly due to the difficulty of assigning districts to individual ministers for special care.

Called ‘guardian ministers’, this is a practice singular to Maharashtra and allows the minister to wield influence in terms of projects that are awarded to the district. The minister is seen as the go-to person for all issues relating to the district.

Agencies