Deshmukh inducts 26 more ministers

As many as four women ministers all Ministers of State have found a berth in the Vilasrao Deshmukh cabinet. They are Vasudhatai Deshmukh Congress, former BJP MLA and now NCP MLA Dr Vimal Mundada, Sulekha Kumbhare Republican Party of India-Gavai and Meenakshi Patil Peasants and Workers Party.

The Deshmukh Cabinet comprises of 11 members each from the Congress and the NCP, three from the PWP who has 5 MLAs, one each from Janata Dal Secular, RPI Gavai and Samajwadi Party. The two-tier Council of Ministers comprises of 14 Cabinet ministers including Deshmukh and Bhujbal and 14 Ministers of State.

The ministers who were sworn in on Tuesday at a function held at Raj Bhavan by Governor Dr PC Alexander are: Cabinet: Dr Padamsinh Patil NCP, Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil NCP, Madhukar PichadNCP, Ganpatrao Deshmukh PWP, Sarupsingh Naik Congress, Dr Patangrao Kadam Congress, Shivajirao Moghe Congress, Ajit Pawar NCP, Hussain Dalwai Congress, Ashokrao Chavan Congress, Jaywant Awale Congress and Vikramsingh Patankar NCP.

Ministers of State: Vasudhatai Deshmukh Congress, Krupashankar Singh Congress, Dr Vimla Mundada. Rajendra Darda Congress, Chandrakant Shivarkar Congress, Sunil Tatkare NCP, Hemant Deshmukh NCP, Rajendra Shingne NCP, Dr N P Hirani NCP, Dada Jadhavrao Janata Dal Secular, Nawab Malik SP, Sulekha KumbhareRPI-Gavai, Meenakshi Patil PWP and Mohan Patil PWP.

Mumbai is represented by two MLA8217;s Krupashankar Singh Santacruz and Nawab Maik Nehru nagar. In the Cabinet, five ministers are first timers which include Dr Patangrao Kadam, Hussain Dalwai, Jaywant Awale, Ashok Chavan and Vikram Singh Patankar.

Meanwhile, Deshmukh announced in a press conference that the draft of Governor Dr P C Alexander8217;s address to the joint sitting of both Houses of the State Legislature on October 22 has been approved by the Cabinet. He said that the address would contain policy statement of the new government and added that the Congress-NCP and other parties alliance will be known as Lokshahi Agadhi.

He said that the Speaker of the newly constituted Lower House would be elected on the morning of October 22 prior to the Governor8217;s address. The Business Advisory Committee BAC would meet on the same day to chalk out the Legislative session programme.

Deshmukh said each and every aspect of the economy will be dealt with minutely and the new government will focus on revival of economy. To a query on the projects launched during the tenure of the Sena-BJP alliance, he said that the projects will be reviewed and whatever is good would be pursued. Elaborating further, Deshmukh said that loans, financial commitments and burden of Fifth Pay Commission would be analysed properly and added that debts might have been deployed but not in the right channel in reply to a query.

Deshmukh felt that in order to balance all the ends of economic structure, the economy has to be assessed in order to make the people aware of the exact state of the economy. Bhujbal, who was also present, said that the decisions taken by the previous government after the announcement of model code of conduct would also be reviewed.

Bhujbal said that some more ministers are likely to be inducted and added that the portfolios of the ministers would be announced later.