In a much-awaited announcement, the Maharashtra government assigned top ministers to supervise one or more districts as the 'Guardian Ministers'. CM Devendra Fadnavis has been given responsibility of Gadchiroli while deputy CM Eknath Shinde got Mumbai and Thane.
What caught everyone's attention was NCP leader and Food and Civil Supplies minister Dhananjay Munde who was the former Guardian Minister of Beed district was no longer in the list released by Maharashtra government. Munde has come under recently fire over the death of BJP sarpanch in the Beed district.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-Nationalist Congress Party-Shiv Sena formed government in December after a landslide victory in the assembly elections.
Who Are Guardian Ministers? | Full List
The Guardian ministers are in charge of managing the District Planning and Development Council (DPDC) funds. These funds are alotted for different development and beautification projects in the district.
Ahmednagar - Chandrashekhar Bawankule
Akola - Akash Fundkar
Amravati - Chandrashekhar Bawankule
Beed - Ajit Pawar
Bhandara - Sanjay Savkare
Buldhana - Makarand Jadhav
Chandrapur - Ashok Uike
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar - Sanjay Shirsat
Dhule - Jaykumar Rawal
Dharashiv - Pratap Sarnaik
Gadchiroli - Devendra Fadnavis
Gondia - Babasaheb Patil
Hingoli - Narhari Jirwal
Jalgaon - Gulabrao Patil
Jalna - Pankaja Munde
Kolhapur - Prakash Abitkar and Madhuri Misal (Joint Guardian Minister)
Latur - Shivendraraje Bhosale
Mumbai City - Eknath Shinde
Mumbai Suburban - Ashish Shelar and Mangalprabhat Lodha (Co-Guardian Minister)
Nagpur - Ajit Pawar
Nanded - Atul Save
Nandurbar - Manikrao Kokate
Palghar - Ganesh Naik
Parbhani - Meghna Bordikar
Pune - Ajit Pawar
Raigad - Aditi Tatkare
Ratnagiri - Uday Samant
Sangli - Hasan Mushrif
Satara - Shambhuraj Desai
Sindhudurg - Nitesh Rane
Solapur - Jaykumar Gore
Thane - Eknath Shinde
Wardha - Pankaj Bhoyar
Washim - Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil
Yavatmal - Sanjay Rathod
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also handles the Home department, would be the guardian minister of Naxal-affected Gadchiroli district.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has been alloted Beed district in addition to Pune, Pawar's home district.
Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde, another deputy CM, would be the guardian minister of Mumbai city as well as Thane district which is his stronghold.
Dhananjay Munde Not A Guardian Minister Anymore
Dhananjay Munde, MLA from Parali in Beed, was guardian minister of this central Maharashtra district during 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.
