new Delhi: Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil on Thursday said the NCP has decided to temporarily hand over portfolios by jailed Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik to the party’s cabinet colleagues, but the ruling alliance ally will not seek his resignation.
Patil, who is also the NCP’s Maharashtra unit president, said the party’s decision would be conveyed to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, adding that he would take a final call in this regard.
Interacting with media persons here after attending a meeting called by NCP president Sharad Pawar to discuss the issue, Patil said the party would not accept Malik’s resignation as he was wrongly arrested.
The meeting took place at Sharad Pawar’s residence here. Apart from Patil, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil and senior party leaders Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare were present. Malik, a senior NCP leader, is a cabinet minister who handles the minority affairs and skill development portfolios in the Shiv Sena-led MVA government. The 62-year-old NCP leader, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in late February in an alleged money laundering case, is currently in jail in judicial custody.
Malik, who heads the Mumbai unit of the NCP, is also the guardian minister of Parbhani and Gondia districts.
His bail plea was rejected once again (recently). Therefore, in the next two to four days, the charge of their portfolio will be passed on to others. Patil said that till he becomes available again, we have decided to make this alternate temporary arrangement.
He said the details of who would be in charge of Malik’s portfolios would be announced after first informing the chief minister.
According to sources, the NCP may give the charge of minority affairs department to Housing Development Minister Jitendra Awhad. He said that the charge of skill development department could go to Rural Development Minister Hassan Mushrif.
Patil said that the charge of Malik’s guardian minister Parbhani and Gondia will be given to Social Justice Minister Dhananjay Munde and Minister of State for Urban Development Prajakat Tanpure, respectively. The NCP minister said a formal request in this regard would be made to the chief minister, who would take a final call.
Patil further said that Malik will continue to head the party’s Mumbai unit.
However, the party has decided to appoint two working presidents Narendra Rane and Rakhi Jadhav to the Mumbai unit in view of the upcoming civic polls in Mumbai.
On BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis’s remarks in Nagpur that the BJP will win the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections alone, Patil quipped, “I, on behalf of the MVA, thank him for saying that the alliance will remain in power till 2024.” He insisted that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) MLAs “won’t break” and added that the coalition government is stable and poses no threat. The NCP and Congress are constituents of the Shiv Sena-led MVA that came to power in November 2019.
Fadnavis, a former CM, recently created a flutter when he accused the MVA of conspiring to target BJP leaders and handed over a pen drive as evidence to the deputy assembly speaker.
When asked about the claim made by the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Patil said the authenticity of the material in the pen drive needs to be verified.