Guardian ministers appointed in Maharashtra; Dhananjay Munde not in list

Mumbai: NCP leader and Food and Civil Supplies minister Dhananjay Munde did not find a place in the list of guardian ministers released by the Maharashtra government.

Ministers in Maharashtra are given responsibility for one or more districts. The announcement was awaited after the formation of the new BJP-NCP-Shiv Sena government last month. The state has 36 districts.

As per the list released on Saturday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also handles the Home department, would be the guardian minister of the Naxal-affected Gadchiroli district, while Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has been allotted Beed district in addition to Pune, Pawar's home district.

Dhananjay Munde, MLA from Parali in Beed, was the guardian minister of this central Maharashtra district in the previous government. But recently, he came under fire from both Opposition as well as local BJP MLAs over the brutal murder of sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh in the district. Walmik Karad, Munde's associate, has been arrested in connection with the case.

Ajit Pawar, who heads the NCP, had refused to ask Munde to resign over the controversy.

Munde, in a post on X, congratulated Ajit Pawar. He had requested Pawar to become Beed's guardian minister given the "changed political and social situation" in the district, he said.

With Pawar's appointment, development of Beed will get a boost, as in Pune, he added.

Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde, another deputy CM, would be the guardian minister of Mumbai city and Thane district, which is his stronghold.

Besides Munde, cabinet ministers Dadaji Bhuse, Datta Bharne, Bharat Gogawale and Ministers of State Indranil Naik and Yogesh Kadam were also not allotted any district.

State BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule was named guardian minister of Nagpur and Amravati.

Ashish Shelar was named guardian minister of Mumbai Suburbs, while Mangal Prabhat Lodha would be co-guardian minister of the district.

Both Shelar and Lodha are BJP leaders from Mumbai.

Aditi Tatkare of NCP would be the guardian minister of Raigad, the post eyed by Bharat Gogawale of the Shiv Sena, who hails from the same coastal district. Gogawale had said in the past that he was keen to be the guardian minister of Raigad.

Shiv Sena's Shambhuraj Desai was named the guardian minister of Satara.

BJP's Shivendra Sinh Bhosale, who is from Satara, has been made guardian minister of Latur. Jaykumar Gore of BJP, also from Satara, has been made guardian minister of Solapur. NCP's Makrand Patil is the guardian minister of Buldhana.

Pankaja Munde of the BJP -- Dhananjay Munde's cousin -- has been made the guardian minister of Jalna district.

Chandrakant Patil was made the guardian minister of Sangli, while another BJP leader, Girish Mahajan, was given the responsibility of Nashik. The Sena's Gulabrao Patil has been allotted Jalgaon.

Ashish Jaiswal of the Shiv Sena would be the co-guardian minister of Gadchiroli along with CM Fadnavis.

Kolhapur will have Prakash Abitkar as the guardian minister and Madhuri Misal as the co-guardian minister.

The other guardian ministers: Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (Ahilyanagar), Hassan Mushrif (Washim), Ganesh Naik (Palghar), Sanjay Rathod (Yavatmal), Uday Samant (Ratnagiri), Jaykumar Raval (Dhule), Atul Save (Nanded), Ashok Uike (Chandrapur), Manikrao Kokate (Nandurbar), Narhari Zirwal (Hingoli), Sanjay Savkare (Bhandara), Sanjay Shirsat (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), Pratap Sarnaik (Dharashiv), Nitesh Rane (Sindhudurg), Akash Fundkar (Akola), Babasaheb Patil (Gondia), Pankaj Bhoir (Wardha) and Meghana Bordikar (Parbhani).