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. Deputy CM Ajit Pawar will handle Pune and Beed districts.
State Ministers Ashish Shelar and Mangal Prabhat Lodha will serve as Guardian Ministers for the Mumbai suburbs. Dhananjay Munde, the NCP leader and Food and Civil Supplies Minister, did not find a place in the list of Maharashtra Guardian Ministers. Munde is under fire over the Beed sarpanch murder case. In the previous government, he was the Guardian Minister of this central Maharashtra district.
Complete List
Gadchiroli: Devendra Fadnavis and Ashish Jaiswal (co-guardian minister)
Thane: Eknath Shinde
Mumbai city: Eknath Shinde
Pune: Ajit Pawar
Ahilya Nagar: Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil
Washim: Hasan Mushrif
Sangli: Chandrakant Patil
Nashik: Girish Mahajan
Palghar: Ganesh Naik
Jalgaon: Gulabrao Patil
Yavatmal: Sanjay Rathod
Mumbai Suburbs: Ashish Shelar, Mangal Prabhat Lodha (co-guardian minister)
Ratnagiri: Uday Samant.
Dhule: Jaykmar Raval
Jalna: Pankaja Munde
Nanded: Atul Save
Chandrapur: Ashok Uike
Satara: Shambhuraj Desai
Raigad: Atiti Tatkare
Latur: Shivendrasinh Bhosale
Nandurbar: Manikrao Kokata
Solapur: Jaikumar Gore
Hingoli: Narhari Zhirwal
Bhandara: Sanjay Savkare
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Sanjay Shirsat.
Dharashiv: Pratap Sarnaik
Buldhana: Makarand Jadhav (Patil)
Sindhudurg: Nitesh Rane
Akola: Akash Phundkar
Gondia: Babasaheb Patil
Kolhapur: Prakash Abitkar, Madhuri Misal (co-guardian minister)
Wardha: Pankaj Bhuyar
Parbhani: Meghana Sakore Bordikar
The announcement came nearly a month after the formation of the new BJP-NCP-Shiv Sena government last month.