BJP to reward ex-MGP MLA Pauskar with cabinet berth

Deepak Pauskar, one of the two MGP MLAs, who split and merged the legislative unit of their regional party and joined the BJP in the early hours of Wednesday, is likely to be sworn-in as a cabinet minister.

BJP sources said that Deputy Chief Minister Sudin Dhavalikar, now the lone MGP MLA in the 36-member state legislative assembly, is likely to be dropped from the cabinet to make way for Pauskar, in the 12-member cabinet.

"I have been assured that there will be a swearing-in at the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday afternoon. I will be happy with any Ministry of the Chief Minister's choosing," Pauskar told reporters at the Assembly complex.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant also said that the swearing in of Pauskar would be held on Wednesday.

At 1.45 a.m. on Wednesday, the two MGP MLAs Pauskar and Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar engineered a split in the three-member MGP legislative unit and joined the BJP in the presence of Sawant and state BJP president Vinay Tendulkar.

The move takes the legislative strength of the Bharatiya Janata Party to 14, at par with the Congress which also has 14 legislators.

The merger came on the heels of a growing discomfort between the BJP and the MGP over share of ministerial berths as well as the latter's decision to field its state president Dipak Dhavalikar as a candidate for the upcoming assembly bypoll at Shiroda against BJP's candidate Subhash Shirodkar.

--IANS

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