Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and party founder Sharad Pawar’s nephew, Ajit Pawar, Sunday led a group of nine party MLAs to join the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Maharashtra. While Ajit took oath as deputy chief minister — a post he will share with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Devendra Fadnavis, the other eight were also inducted as ministers in the government.
These include Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Aditi Tatkare, Dharmarao Baba Atram, Anil Patil and Sanjay Bansode.
The new additions take the number of ministers in the Maharashtra cabinet to 29, against a maximum approved number of 43. None of the new ministers have been assigned portfolios yet.
Meanwhile, in a late-night move Sunday, the NCP filed a disqualification petition against Ajit and the eight others, accusing them of violating the party whip and joining the Shinde government without informing NCP national president, Sharad Pawar.
ThePrint profiles the nine new ministers.
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Ajit Pawar
Ajit has been active in politics for the past three decades. Including his current stint, he has taken oath as Maharashtra deputy chief minister five times.
While he has previously also served as member of Parliament from Baramati, he has mainly focussed on consolidating his position in Maharashtra and has served as home minister, finance minister, power minister, irrigation minister and excise minister in the state government in the past.
The rift between Sharad and nephew Ajit resurfaced many times over the last few years.
Following the 2019 assembly elections, while the erstwhile Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, the NCP, and the Congress tried to cobble together an alliance to stake claim to form the government, Ajit Pawar had, in a similar fashion, extended support to the Fadnavis-led BJP. At a hurried oath-taking ceremony, he was sworn in as the deputy chief minister.
However, his tenure lasted only a few days as Fadnavis failed to prove his numbers. Ajit meanwhile, returned to the NCP, was ‘forgiven’ and even went on to become the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the assembly — the post he said last week he didn’t want anymore.
Sharad had last month appointed his daughter and Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule, along with Rajya Sabha MP Praful Patel, as the party’s working presidents.
The move led to speculation that Sharad, a former Union minister and chief minister of Maharashtra, had settled the debate over who out of daughter Supriya and nephew Ajit would take over the reins of the party after him.
Ajit faced multiple cases including a probe by Maharashtra Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EoW) into alleged irregularities in loans sanctioned by Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank.
Soon after the EoW launched a probe into the charges, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also filed a case in connection with the alleged scam.
However, citing lack of evidence, the EOW filed a closure report before a special court in September 2020.
Another case against Ajit Pawar dates back to when he was the water resources minister in the Congress-NCP government (2008-2014) and chairman of the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Scheme.
The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) began investigating allegations of irregularities in allotment of irritation projects. However, a day after Ajit extended support to BJP’s Fadnavis in the aftermath of the 2019 assembly elections, the ACB submitted a report in the Bombay High Court, giving him a clean chit. While the report is yet to be accepted by the high court, BJP leaders have been demanding a re-investigation into the matter.
Chhagan Bhujbal
Chhagan Bhujbal joining the Shinde government has come as a shocker for many, as he has been considered a Sharad loyalist.
Among the prominent other backward castes (OBC) leaders of Maharashtra, Bhujbal belongs to the Mali community and was previously a member of the Shiv Sena. He left the party in 1991 to join Sharad, who was then with the Congress.
When Sharad formed the NCP in 1999, Bhujbal, who was then the leader of opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, followed him.
The first one to become the NCP state unit chief in 1999, he had served as Maharashtra’s deputy CM in the past and is currently MLA from Yeola, Nashik.
In 2015, the ACB had filed a case against Bhujbal and 16 others in the Bombay High Court over alleged irregularities in awarding of contracts of over Rs 100 crore for three projects, when Bhujbal was the state PWD minister in 2006.
The case dates back to when the state government issued a contract for the construction of a new Maharashtra Sadan building in Delhi, allegedly without inviting tenders, to K.S. Chamankar Enterprises. The public-private partnership contract — which also included the construction of a new Regional Transport Office building in Andheri and a state guest house in Malabar Hill — fell within Bhujbal’s ambit.
The case led to Bhujbal being in jail for two years. He still faces criminal charges for alleged irregularities in the construction of a library in Kalina and offences the ED has alleged based on ACB cases.
Dilip Walse Patil
Another close confidante of Sharad to switch sides Sunday was Dilip Patil. His political career also spans over three decades, and he started off as Sharad’s personal assistant.
Patil is a seven-time MLA from Ambegaon constituency. He has served as home minister, finance minister and power minister in the past, and also been a speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
He was Sharad’s pick as home minister, after Anil Deshmukh had to resign from the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government — an alliance of the Uddhav Thackeray-led undivided Siv Sena, the NCP and the Congress — following graft charges. The MVA government collapsed last year when Shinde led a group of rebel Sena MLAs to join hands with the BJP.
Hasan Mushrif
Hasan Mushrif is a prominent leader from Kolhapur district in western Maharashtra. He is a five-term MLA from Kagal constituency and three-time state cabinet minister.
He has previously served as Maharashta’s minister of labour.
In March this year, the ED searched Mushrif’s residence in Mumbai in connection with alleged irregularities in the functioning of Sar Senapati Santaji Ghorpade Sugar Factory Ltd and firms linked to his family. He had then called it a “deliberate attempt” to implicate him.
Mushrif sought a pre-arrest bail and in his application, claimed that he was summoned for questioning — ‘despite lack of any incriminating material against him’ — many times as predicted by BJP leader and former MP Kirit Somaiya in tweets and press conferences.
The ED investigation was “nothing but the result of a motivated conspiracy, indicating clear mala fides so as to negatively affect the ever-rising political career of the applicant,” Mushrif claimed in the application.
But his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the special court in April. Following that, he approached the Bombay High Court which last week extended the protection from arrest granted to him till 11 July.
Dhananjay Munde
Dhananjay Munde represents the Parli constituency in the Maharashtra assembly.
He is nephew of late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde, and a close aide of Ajit Pawar. In 2019 when Ajit had joined the Fadnavis government, Munde had followed him, but returned to the Sharad camp the same evening.
Aditi Tatkare
Aditi Tatkare, daughter of NCP Rajya Sabha member Sunil Tatkare, represents the Shrivardhan constituency of Raigad district in the Maharashtra assembly. She is a first-time MLA and was minister of state in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
On Sunday she became the first woman minister in the Shinde government.
Sunil Tatkare was embroiled in the multi-crore irrigation scam along with Ajit Pawar. The ACB had named him in the chargesheet, but not as an accused.
Sanjay Bansode
Sanjay Bandsode is MLA from Udgir in Latur district.
Dharmarao Baba Atram
Dharmarao Baba Atram represents the Aheri constituency in the Maharashtra assembly. A Scheduled Tribes (ST) leader and four-term MLA, Sunday’s oath-taking became his fourth time as a Maharashtra minister.
Anil Bhaidas Patil
Anil Patil is MLA from Amalner and was the NCP whip in the assembly before joining the Shinde government.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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