Fadnavis govt mulls over whom to assign guardian ministership of Beed

During the initial discussions, the Beed district’s guardianship was allocated to NCP led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, however, state’s Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister and Parli MLA Dhananjay Munde, who was tipped to be the guardian minister, as landed in a controversy.

Mumbai: As Devendra Fadnavis' government finalises names of guardian ministers for the 36 districts of Maharashtra, the question of who will be the minister for Beed district looms over their heads.

During the initial discussions, the Beed district’s guardianship was allocated to NCP led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, however, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister and Parli MLA Dhananjay Munde, who was tipped to be the guardian minister, has landed in a controversy.

However, the Shiv Sena led by Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, has refused to be drawn into the discussions on the issue.

Munde’s cousin and BJP MLC Pankaja Munde, who is the state’s Environment, Climate Change and Animal Husbandry Minister, has refrained from commenting on the entire issue.

Cutting across party lines, MPs and MLAs from Beed and neighbouring areas have been demanding the ouster of Munde from the Cabinet in the wake of his close aide Walmik Karad’s arrest in a Rs two crore extortion case linked the gruesome murder of Santosh Deshmukh, a three-time Sarpanch of Massajog village in Kaij tehsil of Beed district.

In the previous MahaYuti-government, it was Munde, then Agriculture Minister, who was the guardian minister of Beed and before that in theUddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi, he was in-charge of the same district.

“The guardian ministership of Beed district was with NCP earlier (in the previous government) and this time too it is with them…their leadership would decide on this,” said state BJP President and Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule.

However, state NCP President Sunil Tatkare, on the issue said: “The guardian minister of Beed would be decided by CM (Fadnavis) and two Deputy CMs (Shinde and Pawar).”

NCP (SP)’s Beed MP Bajrang Sonawane, BJP MLA from Ashti, Suresh Dhas, NCP (SP) MLA from Beed, Sandeep Kshirsagar, NCP MLA Prakash Solanke, who represents the Majalgaon seat, are up in arms against Munde.

A day earlier, Munde had rejected demands for his resignation. “Why should I resign? I am in now way directly or indirectly involved (in the murder or extortion cases), the police are probing the matter,” he said.

On the issue of guardian ministership, he noted that the party leadership would take a call.