As per the formula reached between the Congress and its ally the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Congress would hold 22 ministerial berths while the NCP would get 20 ministerial berths. 14 Congress legislators were sworn in as Cabinet ministers, while five were sworn in as ministers of state. From the NCP five Cabinet and five ministers of state were sworn in. Thus the NCP completed its ministerial quota while the Congress has still three ministerial berths in balance, which it will fill as and when required, Chief Minister Chavan said.
Last week, nine NCP ministers had taken oath along with chief minister Chavan and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.
Out of the three Muslim ministers in the 40 member ministry, Mohammed Arif Naseem Khan from the Congress and Hassan Miyalal Mushrif from the NCP took the oath in the name of Allah, while NCP female legislator and former minister Fawzia Khan from Parbhani in Marathawada region took the oath in the name of Ishwar (Hindu god).
Though the NCP retained the same team of old ministers that were in the previous government of Ashok Chavan and dropped none, the Congress dropped four non-performing and controversial ministers and inducted six new faces. The NCP did not make any major changes in the portfolios of its ministers, allowing most of them to retain their old portfolios. However, the Congress, in a calculated move reshuffled portfolios of some of the ministers.
The stunning surprise was that of the former Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, who was involved in some land scam. He was deprived of the same portfolio again and allotted the low profile industry ministry. The NCP too tried to pacify a sulking former Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and allowed him to retain his previous Public Works Department (PWD) and also handed him over the plum Tourism ministry.
With both the Congress and NCP having equal number of ministerial berths, it has become a sort of 20 -20 team. The body language of the Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan at the swearing in ceremony, his looking gloomy and tense, indicated that he would be under tremendous pressure running the coalition government, as Chavan has never been a part of Maharashtra politics and been active only in Delhi as federal minister. His tackling the NCP would not be an easy task, said a senior Congress minister.
A former chief minister told Arab News that the present political scenario in the state politics does not augur good for the government.
“This government does not appear that it would be ‘stable.’ There are still tainted and corrupt ministers from both the Congress and NCP party in the government. More land scams and corruption cases relating to ministers and bureaucrats are being unearthed by each passing day. There are ministers in the new government who are involved in the Adarsh housing society scam as well in other land scam, yet they are part of the government. What message Chavan is sending out to the people with such tainted image,” he asked.
