Pawar reaches Nagpur to meet party MLAS

Pawar is slated to meet Thackeray on Wednesday morning along with Sena MP Sanjay Raut. There has been confusion over who would be the home minister in the new government. Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar has been keen on getting the deputy chief minister’s (DCM) post along with the home department.

There had been some tacit tugof-war between Pawar and his nephew Ajit over this with some leaders claiming the former was not keen on handing this portfolio to his nephew. This had led to a buzz that the expansion could get postponed to January.

However, a senior NCP leader said that in the meeting, Pawar indicated that the expansion would happen as planned, soon after the winter session of the state legislature. “The expansion will happen as planned within a couple of days of the winter session. Pawarsaheb has indicated this. He also said that if the Congress is not ready with its list, the Sena and NCP will go ahead with their expansion,” said a senior NCP leader. He also indicated that Pawar was likely to give in to his nephew’s demand and give him both DCM with home.

For the winter session, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had split the various departments between the three partners. As per this informal understanding among the big departments, the Sena had got both urban development department and home, while NCP got finance, co-operatives and rural development, and Congress got revenue and public works department.

However, Sena leaders claim they are aware that this arrangement was temporary and the NCP will get home department. “There is an understanding that the NCP will keep home. We don’t know who Pawar will give this department to although it has been made clear to us that DCM post will go to Ajit Pawar. There may be a tug-of-war between the uncle and nephew over the home department, but that’s their problem,’’ said a senior Sena leader.

Leaders from the Congress, Sena and NCP had even specified the expansion would be held on December 23 or 24. While Sena leaders are comfortable with the home department going to the NCP, Congress leaders are not happy with this rejig. “If the NCP gets home, we may have to barter a few departments. We would have liked rural development department, for instance,” said a senior Congress leader.