Dilip Deshmukh takes oath as Cabinet Minister

Dilip Deshmukh, MLC and younger brother of former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, was today inducted into the Ashok Chavan Ministry in Maharashtra as a Cabinet Minister.

Mr Deshmukh was administered the oath of office by Governor S C Jamir at Raj Bhavan here this evening.

With the swearing in of Mr Deshmukh, the total strength of Cabinet has risen to 43, which is the prescribed number of Ministers (15 per cent) for the House of 288 members. Of the 43, 30 are Cabinet Ministers and 13 Ministers of state.

Mr Deshmukh, who was Minister of State for Finance during Sushil Kumar Shinde regime, has been a MLc since 2000.

Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Manikrao Thakre, Mumbai Pradesh Congress Committee president Kripa Shankar Singh and government officials were present on the occasion. This is the second expansion of the Ashok Chavan Ministry in the last three months after it assumed power in December. The first expansion took place last month, when Former Revenue Minister Narayan Rane and Arif Naseem Khan were inducted in the Cabinet.

Mr Deshmukh's induction filled the one vacant post from Congress' quota of Ministers. While Mr Rane was angling for his trusted lieutenant Kalidas Kolambkar and Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh for his younger brother, former Maharashtra Congress Pradesh Committee president Govindrao Adik was also trying to get a berth in the Cabinet through this post. However, the three names fizzled out for one or the other reason, resulting in Mr Adik openly revolting against the party. Mr Adik will be joining NCP today.

Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh has also pointed out that Mr Chavan was the only Minister from Marathwada region. He went on to remind Mr Chavan that during his tenure as the Chief Minister there were two Congress Ministers from the region--he himself and Mr Chavan.

-- (UNI) -- 01BY27.xml

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