From Abdul Sattar to Sanjay Rathod - Tainted politicians in Maharashtra cabinet

Mumbai: Minutes after Eknath Shinde inducted 18 members from his Shiv Sena camp and the BJP’s, the Opposition parties came down hard on him for giving portfolios to tainted politicians.

Opposition NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena slammed Shinde for induction of legislators including Sanjay Rathod, Vijaykumar Gavit, Abdul Sattar and Tanaji Sawant despite facing various charges.

BJP leader Chitra Wagh, as well as Shiv Sena leader Kishori Pednekar, separately lashed out at Shinde for giving a ministerial berth to Rathod who had to resign as the forest minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government following serious charges in connection with the death of Pune based woman. Wagh claimed that she will continue her fight as she has full faith in the judiciary.

The team of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was expanded with the induction of 18 new ministers here on Tuesday.

Uncertainty loomed till yesterday over Abdul Sattar’s induction after his daughters names had cropped up in the cash-for-marks scandal.

The names of his three daughters and a son appeared in the list of the 7,880 candidates who were disqualified and banned in connection with the alleged rigging of the Teachers' Eligibility Test (TET) 2019-20. Sattar, who was minister of state for revenue left Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and defected to the Eknath Shinde camp. NCP, Congress and Thackeray faction have demanded a probe in this regard.

Sattar denied charges saying that he will seek an inquiry into how the names of his two daughters cropped up in the list though they had "failed" to clear it. He claimed his son never appeared for the exam but was evasive about his third daughter. "A conspiracy has been hatched against me and my family," he alleged. He declared that he will initiate legal action for inclusion of names of his daughters in the list of disqualified candidates.

Thirty nine days after he took oath as chief minister, Shinde attempted a balancing act, by inducting nine ministers from his group and 9 from the ally Bharatiya Janata Party. Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis took over on June 30 after the collapse of the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government headed by former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The ministers inducted from the Shinde group are:

Gulabrao Patil, Dadaji Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Sandipan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar and Shambhuraj Desai.

The BJP MLAs sworn-in as ministers are:

Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil. Chandrakant Patil. Sudhir Mungantiwar. Girish Mahajan. Vijaykumar Gavit. Suresh Khade, Atul Save, Ravindra Chavan and Mangal Prabhat Lodha.

Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers in Raj Bhavan. Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis, Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar and other legislators from various political parties and officials attended the event.

Published on: Tuesday, August 09, 2022, 02:08 PM IST