Murlidhar Mohol allocated cooperation, civil aviation ministries

Mohol was elected to the Lok Sabha in the recent elections and had taken oath as minister of state in the union government to be headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The BJP's performance in the Lok Sabha election fell far below its expectations as it won only nine seats, with three of them in cities like Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. (PTI)

Making it to the union cabinet in his first term as Lok Sabha MP, Pune city BJP MP and minister of state, Murlidhar Mohol was allocated the ministries of Cooperation and Civil Aviation on Monday in the newly constituted NDA government at the Centre.

Mohol was elected to the Lok Sabha in the recent elections and had taken oath as minister of state in the union government to be headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mohol said he was fortunate to get to work under Union Home Minister Amit Shah. “Cooperatives will enable me to connect with locals at the ground level and work for them,” Mohol said.

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He said that the BJP-led union government had initiated a lot of work to develop airports. “There is the development of Navi Mumbai airport, Pune airport and the proposed airport in Purandar. I will be able to work towards these projects,” he said.

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Mohol had defeated Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar in the Pune Lok Sabha seat by over one lakh votes.

The former mayor of the city, Mohol had been a three-term corporator of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) while his wife Monika Mohol was elected to the civic body once. Mohol had contested the assembly elections from Khadakwasla in the past but had been defeated by Ramesh Wanjale of MNS.

Mohol’s inclusion as minister of state in the Cooperation and Civil Aviation departments is seen as a move by the BJP to gain control of the cooperative sector, which is dominted by politics of Maharashtra, mainly in western maharashtra. The cooperative sugar mills, banks and credit societies influence the rural vote bank in Maharashtra and until now, were dominated by Congress and NCP.

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The BJP’s performance in the Lok Sabha election fell far below its expectations as it won only nine seats, with three of them in cities like Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation holds importance considering the demand of the city for an international airport and development of one in Pune district.

Ajay Jadhav

Ajay Jadhav is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, Pune. He writes on Infrastructure, Politics, Civic issues, Sustainable Development and related stuff. He is a trekker and a sports enthusiast. Ajay has written research articles on the Conservancy staff that created a nationwide impact in framing policy to improve the condition of workers handling waste. Ajay has been consistently writing on politics and infrastructure. He brought to light the lack of basic infrastructure of school and hospital in the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde even as two private helipads were developed by the leader who mostly commutes from Mumbai to Satara in helicopter. Ajay has been reporting on sustainable development initiatives that protects the environment while ensuring infrastructure development. ... Read More

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