Dynasty politics seemed to play a dominant role in the expansion of chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray’s cabinet as 18 of the 36 ministers sworn-in came from political families. These include the top three ministers who took oath — deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, nephew of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar; Congress’s Ashok Chavan, son former CM SB Chavan; and Shiv Sena scion Aaditya, son of Thackeray .
Aaditya’s induction marked the first time in the state’s political history when a son joined the cabinet headed by his father. Other dynasts from Sena were Shankarrao Gadakh, a member of the heavyweight Gadakh family from Ahmednagar district and son of Yashwantrao Gadakh, and Shambhuraj Desai, son of former state minister Balasaheb Desai.
Seven of the 14 NCP ministers inducted into the cabinet hailed from political clans. Apart from Pawar, Dhananjay Munde, the nephew of late Gopinath Munde; Balasaheb Patil, son of NCP leader from Satara district, Pandurang Patil; Aditi Tatkare, the daughter of NCP MP Sunil Tatkare; Prajakt Tanpure, son of NCP leader from Ahmednagar, Prasad Tanpure; and Dilip Walse Patil, son of former Congress leader Dattatraya Walse Patil, were also inducted. Six of the 10 Congress MLAs in the cabinet are political dynasts. Besides Chavan, there’s another leader hailing from Marathwada — former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh’s son, Amit. From Western Maharashtra, DY Patil’s son, Satej Patil, took oath as a minister of state, along with Vishwajit Kadam, son of the late Patangrao Kadam, a Congress minister. From Mumbai, Varsha Gaikwad, daughter of Congress leader Eknath Gaikwad was sworn in along with Yashomati Thakur, daughter of leader Bhaiyasaheb Thakur. Congress minister Balasaheb Thorat, said, “We should appreciate Congress infusing new blood into the cabinet.”
