Ajit Pawar to decide on allotting ministry earlier held by Dhananjay Munde: NCP minister

Mumbai, Mar 13 (PTI) Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar will decide on whom to allot the food and civil supplies portfolio in the wake of Dhananjay Munde’s resignation earlier this month, a state minister said on Thursday.

Munde, who belongs to the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), resigned from the cabinet on March 4, days after his close aide Walmik Karad was named as the mastermind in the murder of Santosh Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed.

When asked about who would be allotted Munde’s ministry, agriculture minister and NCP legislator Manikrao Kokate said, “I have no idea about who will get the charge of his ministry. The decision regarding it will be taken by Ajit Pawar.”

Deshmukh was abducted, tortured and murdered on December 9 last year allegedly for attempting to stop an extortion bid targeting an energy company in the district.

The pressure on Munde (49) to resign mounted after gory photos and videos of the brutalities committed against Deshmukh before his murder surfaced. The photos and videos, attached to a Crime Investigation Department (CID) chargesheet filed in the case, went viral and sparked a state-wide outrage.

In a statement issued after tendering his resignation, Munde, who represents the Parli assembly segment in Beed, had said he was stepping down after listening to his conscience and also for medical reasons. He said he was deeply saddened after seeing the photographs related to Deshmukh’s gruesome murder.

Munde’s unceremonious exit capped the nearly three month-long demand by the opposition and even by a section of MLAs of the BJP and his own party NCP for his resignation from the cabinet.

Last month, a magistrate court in Nashik district sentenced minister Manikrao Kokate to two years’ imprisonment in a 1995 case, where he was charged with submitting fake documents to get flats under a government quota. A sessions court later stayed his conviction.