Ashish Damle, Chairman of the Parshuram Economic Development Corporation, has been given ministerial status. A decision to this effect was taken by the state government's planning department on September 16.
The corporation works for the welfare of Brahmins. Damle is from Badlapur in Thane district. Thus the district will have three ministers, deputy CM Eknath Shinde and Pratap Sarnaik, transport minister and now Damle. The latter, who has a good hold in Badlapur, is expected to mobilise support for the ruling Mahayuti during the upcoming local-self government elections.
Damle said his first priority is to maintain communal harmony in the state. "I am a Brahmin, my mother is Gujarati and my wife is a Maratha. In the ward from which I got elected as a corporator, I received the support of the backward class and Buddhist community," he added.
