A file image of Dhananjay Munde
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

NCP leader and Food and Civil Supplies minister Dhananjay Munde who was the guardian minister of Beed district in the previous government has been replaced by Ajit Pawar, according to the list of Guardian Ministers released by the Maharashtra government on Saturday(January 19, 2025). Mr. Pawar will take care of issues in Beed in addition to his home district Pune.

Mr. Munde’s replacement comes after the murder of sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, would be the guardian minister of the Gadchiroli district which is affected by Naxal activities.

Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, was allotted Mumbai city and Thane district.

State BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule was the guardian minister of Nagpur and Amravati. Ashish Shelar was allotted Mumbai Suburbs, and Mangal Prabhat Lodha would be a co-guardian minister of the district. Both Shelar and Lodha are BJP leaders from Mumbai.

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Aditi Tatkare of NCP would be the guardian minister of Raigad, and Shiv Sena’s Shambhuraj Desai was named the guardian minister of Satara. The district’s native Shivendra Sinh Bhosale, was allotted guardian minister of Latur. Jaykumar Gore of BJP,who also hails from Satara, was made the guardian minister of Solapur. NCP’s Makrand Patil was allotted Buldhana.

Pankaja Munde of the BJP has been made the guardian minister of Jalna district. Chandrakant Patil was made the guardian minister of Sangli, while another BJP leader, Girish Mahajan, was given the responsibility of Nashik. The Sena’s Gulabrao Patil has been allotted Jalgaon. Ashish Jaiswal of the Shiv Sena will function as the co-guardian minister of Gadchiroli along with Mr. Fadnavis. Kolhapur will have Prakash Abitkar as the guardian minister and Madhuri Misal as the co-guardian minister.

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“There is no fear of the law and the police appear to be taking sides,” Mr. Patil alleged. On reports of Malshiras NCP(SP) MLA Uttam Jankar’s plans to resign on January 23 and submit his resignation to the Election Commission in Delhi, Mr. Patil said he might have taken the step to put pressure on the poll body to conduct elections on the ballot paper.

The other guardian ministers: Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (Ahilyanagar), Hassan Mushrif (Washim), Ganesh Naik (Palghar), Sanjay Rathod (Yavatmal), Uday Samant (Ratnagiri), Jaykumar Raval (Dhule), Atul Save (Nanded), Ashok Uike (Chandrapur), Manikrao Kokate (Nandurbar), Narhari Zirwal (Hingoli), Sanjay Savkare (Bhandara), Sanjay Shirsat (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), Pratap Sarnaik (Dharashiv), Nitesh Rane (Sindhudurg), Akash Fundkar (Akola), Babasaheb Patil (Gondia), Pankaj Bhoir (Wardha) and Meghana Bordikar (Parbhani).