NCP leader Bhaskar Jadhav takes oath as Maharashtra minister

Jadhav replaces Sunil Tatkare in the Cabinet

The Nationalist Congress Party legislator Bhaskar Jadhav was on Thursday inducted as cabinet minister in the Maharashtra Cabinet at a brief Cabinet expansion. Governor K Sankaranarayanan administered the oath of office and secrecy to Jadhav who had resigned as the Maharashtra NCP unit president on Wednesday. An OBC leader Sunil Tatkare replaced Jadhav as the new state NCP president. Tatkare last night resigned as the water resources minister.

The swearing in ceremony was attended by the Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, deputy CM Ajit Pawar, Maharashtra Legislative Council chairman Shivajirao Deshmukh, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly speaker Dilip Walse Patil, minister for public works Chhagan Bhujbal.

Earlier, Jadhav on June 11 had resigned as the minister of state for urban development and

subsequently on June 15 he was appointed as the Maharashtra NCP unit president. After party's humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha poll in Maharashtra, NCP took a decision to replace Jadhav and appoint Tatkare who comes from the Hindu Gawli community, a part of other backward class. It was NCP's desperate attempt to change party's pro-Maratha image and thereby lure OBCs, minorities and backward classes in the run up to the assembly election slated for September-October.

Meanwhile, today's was the third cabinet expansion took place since last 26 days. On May 29, NCP's OBC legislator Jitendra Avad was inducted as the cabinet minister and given a portfolio of medical education. Thereafter, Congress legislators Abdul Sattar and Amit Deshmukh were sworn in on June 2. Sattar, who was inducted as the cabinet minister has been allocated ministry of dairy development and animal husbandry while Amit Deshmukh, who is the son of former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, was sworn in as the minister of state and given departments of tourism, food and drug administration and excise.