Weeks after Uddhav Thackeray took oath as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, the Maha Vikas Aghadi, an alliance of Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress, has finally allocated its Cabinet portfolios with Sena keeping Home, Congress getting Revenue and Finance and Planning going to NCP.
Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde has been allocated the charge for Home, Urban Development, Environment, PWD, Tourism and Parliamentary works. His party colleague in the Cabinet, Subhash Desai has been given the portfolio of Industry, Higher and Technical Education, Sports and Youth, and Employment.
On the other hand, Maharashtra Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat will look after the Revenue, School Education, mal Husbandry and Fisheries in the Maharashtra Cabinet. Besides him, party leader Nitin Raut has been given the charge of PWD Tribal development, OBC Development, Women and Child Development and Relief and Rehabilitation.
Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party's Chhagan Bhujbal has been allocated the charge of Rural Development, Social Justice, Water Resources and State Excise. Also, NCP's Jayant Patil will look after Finance and Planning, Housing, Food Supply and Labour.
The six leaders -- two each from Congress, Shiv Sena, and NCP -- took oath as ministers in Maharashtra's alliance government on November 28. They were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Shivaji Park here.
Uddhav Thackeray is the first member of the Thackeray family to become the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and the third Shiv Sena leader to hold the top post after Manohar Joshi and Narayan Rane.
In the Assembly elections held in October, BJP and Shiv Sena contested the polls together and got 105 and 56 seats, respectively. However, the two parties had a fallout over power-sharing of the chief ministerial post.
Thackeray asserted that the Chief Minister's post will be on a rotational basis, with the BJP ruling the first half of the five-year term and Sena completing the last half. However, the BJP rejected Sena's claim, saying no such agreement was finalised before the elections and made it clear that Devendra Fadnavis would be the Chief Minister for full five years.
Thackeray then severed his party's 30-year-old ties with the BJP and entered into talks with Congress and NCP, two ideologically different parties, charting an unlikely alliance.
Later, the President's Rule was imposed in the state as no party came forward to form the government even as negotiations between Congress, NCP, and Shiv Sena progressed.
However, in a dramatic turn of events, Fadnavis and NCP leader Ajit Pawar took oath as chief minister and deputy chief minister respectively on November 23 nixing Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP's bid to form government in the state. NCP chief Sharad Pawar quickly clarified that his nephew's decision to join hands with BJP was his personal choice and not of the party's.
After days of quick political developments in the state that included a grand public parade by MLAs from Shiv Sena, Congress, and NCP, Fadnavis, and Pawar tendered their resignations. While Fadnavis said his party did not have the numbers to prove majority on the floor of the Assembly, Pawar stepped down due to personal reasons.
Their resignations came after the Supreme Court had asked the Fadnavis government to prove its majority in the 288-member Assembly.
Later, Thackeray was unmously elected as the leader of the tri-party alliance which met the Governor Koshyari to stake claim to form the government in the state.
( With inputs from ANI )