Congress' Vijay Wadettiwar takes charge at Mantralaya

Nearly a week after portfolios of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government was announced, sulking Congressman Vijay Wadettiwar, on Friday formally took charge at Mantralaya, the state secretariat.

Wadettiwar had even skipped the previous Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray - and was also not seen in the day-long Vidhan Sabha session earlier this week.

Wadettiwar is an MLA from Chandrapur in Vidarbha region and was previously the Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

During the portfolio allocation, Wadettiwar was given Other Backward Class, Socially & Economically Backward Class, Saltpan departments along with Earthquake Rehabilitation.

He was promised Relief and Rehabilitation Ministry, which was in the Congress quota. During the allocation, it went to the Shiv Sena quota.

In fact, Wadettiwar did not take charge and even went to New Delhi and flagged the issue with the Congress high command.

Wadettiwar was upset over not getting this ministry and stayed away from taking charge of ministerial responsibilities. However, now the ministry had been given to him.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday said Wadettiwar was supposed to get the Relief and Rehabilitation Ministry, but due to a "printing mistake", the list mentioned only Earthquake Rehabilitation as his portfolio.

“I was not unhappy with the party leadership… Chief Minister called me up today and said the typo would be rectified in the list of portfolios,” Wadettiwar said.

When asked about the printing or typo mistake, he said: "A mistake is a mistake...it has now been rectified."

Wadettiwar, a senior Congress leader, had played a key role in the formation of the MVA government.