The Governor of Maharashtra on Sunday approved the list of portfolios to be given to the ministers of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, with deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar getting the Finance Ministry while NCP leader Anil Deshmukh getting the Home Ministry.
First-time MLA and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aaditya will take charge of the Environment Ministry. The MLA from Worli had vouched for a ban on single-use plastic and campaigns on climate change issues including saving the Aarey forest.
Sharad Pawar’s party, NCP which played a key role in bringing together the ideologically disparate Sena and the Congress and helped government formation in Maharashtra, has bagged most of the portfolios with 14 ministeries.
The portfolio allocation comes five days after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray expanded his Cabinet by inducting 36 ministers, taking his ministerial team to 43 —33 Cabinet and 10 states.
NCP’s Anil Deshmukh got the crucial home portfolio, urban development has gone to Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde, Industries to Sena’s Subhash Desai, the key revenue ministry to the Congress’s Balasaheb Thorat, Labour and Excise to NCP’s Dilip Walse Patil, Housing to NCP’s Jitendra Ahwad and Medical Education to Congress’s Varsha Gaikwad. Dhananjay Munde of Sharad Pawar’s party got the Ministry of Social Justice.
The key revenue portfolio has been given to Congress state chief Balasaheb Thorat, PWD for former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Medical Education for Varsha Gaikwad.
With 44 MLAs, the Congress has got 12 ministerial berths, while Sena, with 56 MLAs, has 15 and NCP, with 54 MLAs, has 16.