New Delhi: The Uddhav Thackeray government on Sunday officially announced the portfolio allocation for the Maharashtra government after over a month of coming to power.
While NCP’s Ajit Pawar, who is the deputy chief minister, has been allocated the finance and planning portfolio, Aaditya Thackeray will handle tourism and environment. The Home Ministry has been allocated to NCP's Anil Deshmukh and Eknath Shinde of the Sena is incharge of Urban Development Ministry. Senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat has got the revenue ministry.
With this allocation of portfolios, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP has got most of the 'plum' ministries.
On Sunday, Governor BS Koshyari approved the list after the three allies — Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress — arrived at a consensus over several core portfolios.
The portfolio allocation in the state has been the source of much discomfort and difference among the allies since the new government was sworn in. Thackeray and six of his council members — two each from the Sena, NCP and Congress — had taken oath on November 28.
The first cabinet expansion took place on December 30. The full-fledged allocation of portfolios, however, is yet to be done.
The NCP earlier said the allocation of portfolios is taking time as the government is mulling the creation of a few new departments. NCP chief spokesperson and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik said the portfolios are likely to be allocated on Monday.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar had earlier said that no one in the ruling coalition in Maharashtra is unhappy over portfolio allocation. His comments came after the Sena admitted there was a tussle among senior leaders of the three alliance partners for key ministries.
Sources earlier said the Congress, which has been seeking two additional berths in the government, submitted its list of ministers with the departments allocated to them to Thackeray on Friday.
According to the earlier portfolio-sharing arrangement, the three parties had decided that the Congress is to get 12 ministries in the 43-member council of ministers.
The BJP and the Sena, which fought the Assembly polls together, had secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats, respectively, in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly. However, Maharashtra witnessed a political crisis after the Sena broke its three-decade-long ties with the BJP after the latter declined to share the chief minister's post.
An irate Sena then joined hands with the NCP and the Congress to form a government headed by Thackeray, who took oath as chief minister on November 28. According to the power-sharing formula agreed on by the three parties, the Shiv Sena would have 16 ministers (apart from chief minister), NCP 14 and the Congress 12.
(With inputs from PTI)
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