Mumbai:
Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal said today that he will be initiated into the Maharashtra cabinet led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday, which marks his return to the ministerial office after a long gap.
“I have been informed that I will be admitted to the cabinet. The oedceremony will take place on Tuesday at 10 am,” he said.
Sources in the BJP, which leads the prevailing Mahayuti coalition, confirmed the development.
The experienced politician will be sworn in by Maharashtra Gouverneur CP Radhakrishnan in Raj Bhavan.
Mr Bhujbal (77), who had a major and moving political career that included a few decades, was remarkably absent during the Cabinet Expansion of Chief Minister Fadnavis in December last year.
At the time, his exclusion of the cabinet had drawn the public disappointment of the experienced leader, a prominent OBC face in the state.
His admission to the cabinet follows the resignation of Dhananjay Munde, a colleague NCP heavyweight who resigned in March as the food, civil supplies and minister of consumer protection.
Munde had resigned under the health reasons, but his departure from the cabinet came across the background of his closest assistant Walmik Karad who was mentioned as an important accused in Sarpanch Santosh Dshmukh Murder Case.
In the past, Bhujbal, the MLA of Yeola in the Nashik district, served as a cabinet minister, including as a deputy CM, in various governments.
According to sources, the decision with regard to portfolio testing allocation is based on Mr Bhujbal with the Chief Minister and will be announced after the curse ceremony.
The prevailing Mahayuti coalition consists of the BJP, the Shiv Sena and the NCP led by deputy CM Ajit Pawar.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
