Ajit Pawar Gets Finance Portfolio In Maharashtra Cabinet Rejig: Check Full List Of Ministers

Amid speculations of fissures in the fledgling ruling alliance in Maharashtra, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has secured finance departments in the Cabinet expansion.

Besides finance, the Ajit Pawar faction has secured food and civil supplies, cooperatives, women and child development, agriculture, relief and rehabilitation, and medical education departments.

The induction of NCP leaders in the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition, sparked dissent over the allocation of portfolios. A standoff between the Ajit Pawar camp and the Eknath Shinde faction delayed the much-awaited Cabinet expansion for more than 10 days.

The allocation of the key portfolios like finance is seen as a major win for Ajit Pawar, who lobbied for for his party men during his meetings with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Here is the full list of NCP ministers and their portfolios

• Ajit Pawar: Finance Ministry and the Planning Department
• Dhananjay Munde: Agriculture
• Hasan Mushriff: Medical education
• Dilip Walse Patil: Cooperation
• Chhagan Bhujbal: Food and Civil Supplies
• Aditi Tatkare: Women and Child welfare
• Anil Patil: Relief and Rehabilitation
• Sanjay Bansode: Sports and Youth Welfare

With the inclusion of 9 NCP ministers, there are 29 cabinet ministers in Maharashtra. Shinde-led Shiv Sena MLAs apparently had objected to the allocation of Finance and Planning to Pawar.

With Tatkare's induction, for the first time, a woman MLA has been given a cabinet berth in the Shinde government. In the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, Tatkare was a minister of state with several portfolios.

Meanwhile, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party mocked the Bharatiya Janata Party with "washing machine" jibe after a member of the Ajit Pawar faction was made Maharashtra cooperation minister.

The BJP has been accusing Ajit Pawar of scams and corruption in the cooperative sector in the state and the allegations had found mention in a public address of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well, claimed Clyde Crasto, spokesperson of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.

"There are many questions that have come up because of this and the BJP needs to answer them. Was the BJP making allegations against him (Ajit Pawar) to put pressure on him and his group or was this just a part of their (BJP's) washing machine scheme. Mostly importantly, does the BJP endorse the alleged scams and corruption in the cooperative sector," Crsato questioned.