The tri-party government's new Cabinet includes former CM Ashok Chavan, Sena's Sanjay Rathod, and NCP's Dhananjay Munde among others
In the new Maha Vikas Aghadi's cabinet announced on Monday, there were a mix of those from the city and those from elsewhere in the state. Here are brief profiles of non-Mumbaikars on the chief minister's new Cabinet:
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Ajit Pawar: A record four-time deputy chief minister whose induction means the binding of NCP would go unaffected. The Maratha leader's rebellion a month ago had rocked the NCP boat, but a meticulous maneuvering by family head Sharad Pawar had him back in the fold. Undisputed champion of Baramati and a no-nonsense administrator, he will be the NCP's loud voice in the MVA government and may even be a cause for flashpoints between the constituents.
Ashok Chavan: Maharashtra did not have many former CMs working as cabinet ministers in other teams. Congress has given him a berth to infuse experience in the khichdi team that has full of diverse views and working styles. His role in decision-making should be checkmating the competition in MVA. A Maratha representing Marathwada.
Gulabrao Patil: Sena's firebrand orator from North Maharashtra who competes with BJP's powerful local leaders. Promoted to the Cabinet rank, Patil is an OBC who can play a major role in expanding the party in the region.
Uday Samant: Hailing from Ratnagiri, he will be Sena's Konkan mascot. MoS of housing in the previous government, he will now head departments as a senior minister. His promotion will be seen as a demotion of senior Sena leaders in the region.
Sanjay Rathod: Sena's Vidarbha warrior has been rewarded with a promotion to the Cabinet. A Banjara (NT) by caste, he will have to go beyond his constituency and build the party wrestling against three other major parties of which the Congress and BJP hold sway in the region which had a record number of senior ministers in the previous ministers.
Dada Bhuse: A low-profile Shiv Sainik from a minority-dominated Malegaon region has been promoted from an MoS rank. A diehard Sena worker who rose from the lower level is party's new powerhouse in the Nashik district.
Sandipan Bhumre: He comes from a sensitive Aurangabad region where the Sena, BJP and AIMIM are major players in the power struggle. He has been inducted as a Cabinet minister as some seniors lost the last elections in Marathwada.
Shambhuraje Desai: His prolonged wait has ended with an MoS berth. A descendant of a Maratha general's family, he holds Patan in Satara where politics is the way of life. A studious MLA who has been raising issues of public importance will be faced with a challenge to get the job done though he will have not much power.
Abdul Sattar: He quit Congress which had made him a junior minister in the Ashok Chavan team a decade ago, to join the Sena ahead of Assembly polls. He took no time to adapt the Sena ways of aggressive politics and has found favour with the Thackerays. Sena had made a Muslim a minister 20 years ago. Sattar's appointment has added to Sena's new-found secular attribute.
Shankarrao Gadakh: Sena's small ally comes from Ahmednagar district where Sena suffered some significant losses in the recent polls. Having inherited politics from his father, he will have to act more like Sainik than a leader of a local front.
Bacchu Kadu: The four-time MLA is also Sena's ally. He heads a social organisation called Prahar through which he stages novel protests and has invited the ire of administration when his individual conduct was uncalled for. His is a different brand that also won yet another MLA from Amravati district. Independent charge means he will be as powerful as a Cabinet minister.
Rajendra Patil Yadravkar: His induction as MoS Independent charge will cause heartburn to Sena's MLAs in Kolhapur district because he is an NCP rebel who beat a Sena candidate in 2019 elections from Shirola.
Dilip Walse Patil: Former speaker and minister, he is Sharad Pawar's close aide who in fact did a political internship by working as personal assistant to the former union minister and ex-CM. He has headed several important departments in the previous NCP-Congress government. Seen as a sane and learned voice he should be the ears and eyes of the party boss.
Dhananjay Munde: A BJP import has made it big in the NCP in a short time. Ajit Pawar's Man Friday has worked as an opposition leader in the upper house in an appealing style, launching attacks after attacks on the BJP government. His entry should be seen as Ajit's upper hand.
Hassan Mushrif: NCP's Muslim strongman from South Maharashtra (Kolhapur). He is a popular face that brings a lot of experience to the MVA government in which his party is expected to have more say than the other two parties.
Anil Deshmukh: NCP's sole face in Vidarbha who started as an independent MLA and MoS in the first BJP-Sena government before joining the NCP. He served 15 years as minister thereafter and was beaten in 2014, but bounced back in October to be one of the most experienced ministers in the Thackeray team.
Aditi Tatkare: Of the 26 new faces in NCP, she belongs to the youth brigade having an experience of heading Raigad ZP. She inherited politics from father and MP Sunil Tatkare, who is Ajit Pawar's favourite associate. She is mentored by Ajit and her father and won the party's preference over many male young competitors.
Prajakta Tanpure: His ex-MLA/MP father and mother who is senior minister Jayant Patil's sister, are his strength. The city council president of Rahuri, he is a mechanical engineer who his uncle and Ajit Pawar wanted in their team though senior Pawar wanted some other MLA from Ahmednagar district.
Sanjay Bansode: An NCP leader belonging to the Dalit community he represents Udgir in Marathwada's Latur district where Congress and BJP are stronger than NCP and Sena. When Ajit Pawar rebelled and had some MLAs flown to other cities, Bansode was brought back from the Mumbai airport to meet the party president.
KC Padvi: The Gandhi family loyalist represents ST-dominated Akkalkuwa segment in North Maharashtra's tribal belt of Nandurbar. His entry in the Cabinet will result in overshadowing of other tribal leaders of the Congress.
Vijay Wadettiwar: The former Sainik-turned-Congressman was an MoS and then made opposition leader after Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil quit the Congress. He represents eastern Vidarbha where BJP suffered a significant dent two months ago.
Sunil Kedar: He realised his dream of becoming a minister after 20 years, after serving as an MoS in the Sena-BJP first government as an independent MLA. He had quit then and joined Congress. He has kept Saoner near Nagpur undefeated for the Congress ever since. When MVA was in the making, Kedar had categorically told the high command that the Congress MLAs would form a separate group if their party did not join the government. Aggressive and hyperactive, Kedar will be a man to watch out for.
Amit Deshmukh: He and his brother Dheeraj restored the Congress prestige in Latur this year. He was a Cabinet minister for a brief time before the Congress went to polls in 2014. The elder son of late CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, he has earned the berth by virtue of the legacy and good work.
Yashomati Thakur: Yet another senior minister from Vidarbha, she is working president of Congress and one of the most vocal and learned MLAs. She enjoys good rapport with the Delhi bosses and has shown flashes of political brilliance when needed.
Satej Patil: He may complain of injustice because the promotion to the Cabinet rank has evaded him. He was one of most powerful junior ministers in the Prithviraj Chavan team and actually experimented an MVA-like move in Kolhapur in reviving the party's prospects.
Vishwajeet Kadam: The son of a Congress loyalist late Patangrao Kadam, he represents the father's segment in Sangli district. He has inherited an educational empire and bears the responsibility of running the party in that part of western Maharashtra where NCP stalwarts play handball.
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