Mumbai, May 19 (IANS) Veteran NCP leader and Samata Parishad founder Chhagan Bhujbal will be inducted into the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis-led council of ministers at the swearing-in ceremony being organised on May 20.

Bhujbal confirmed his induction in the ministry. Bhujbal’s entry into the Cabinet was cleared by the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and it was formally conveyed to him that he would have to take oath on Tuesday.

Bhujbal is expected to get the Food and Civil Supply Department, which he held during the ministry headed by the former Chief Ministers Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde (2019-2024).

NCP president Ajit Pawar, along with working president Praful Patel and state unit chief Sunil Tatkare, took a unanimous decision paving the way for Bhujbal’s induction in the Cabinet.

NCP needed a formidable and strong OBC face in the Cabinet especially after another OBC leader Dhananjay Munde had to resign during the budget session of the state legislature held in March in connection with the brutal killing of the Beed Sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh.

Munde was holding the Food and Civil Supply Department, and after his exit, the department is being headed by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

Bhujbal’s induction is also politically important for NCP, especially when the Supreme Court asked the state government to complete the process of local and civic body elections in four months, while going by the OBC reservations prior to the recommendations made by the Banthia committee.

Bhujbal has been at the forefront of the protection of OBC reservation in a major tussle against pro-Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange.

Moreover, Bhujbal has been a strong advocate of caste based census, which the Centre has recently cleared.

Bhujbal, who is the senior OBC leader, was sulking after he was dropped during the expansion of the Fadnavis-led Cabinet held on December 15 last year. He had openly expressed serious displeasure over not getting a ministerial berth despite vigorously taking up the OBC cause of the party during the Assembly elections held last year.

He had subsequently abstained from several party engagements, but after the intervention of the party president, Ajit Pawar and working president Praful Patel, he had started taking part in organisational functions.

Further, he was furious after his nomination was not considered twice for the Rajya Sabha elections in the past.

–IANS

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