Zeenews Bureau
Mumbai, Dec 05: Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar on Friday announced the name of Chhagan Bhujbal as the next Deputy Chief Minister of the state.
Bhujbal, besides taking charge of Deputy CM’s post will have an additional responsibility of Home Ministry.
His appointment comes five days after R R Patil resigned as Deputy Chief Minister, owning moral responsibility for last week's terror attacks in Mumbai, which left around 200 people dead.
Bhujbal currently holds the Public Works Department portfolio and is widely known in political circles as being a tough task master.
On the Congress's front, there is no clarity as to who
would succeed Vilasrao Deshmukh as Chief Minister despite
Maharashtra minister Ashok Chavan apparently having an edge
over Narayan Rane in the leadership tussle.
Senior Congress leaders Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony
had a meeting with Gandhi this morning and indicated that
there could be a decision in the evening.
"We will get back to you in the evening," Antony told
reporters.
Last night in Mumbai, Congress failed to choose a
successor to Deshmukh, who quit in the wake of Mumbai terror
attacks.
61-year-old Bhujbal was the Deputy Chief Minister in the
first Congress-NCP government sworn-in in 1999 but had to quit
after a controversy.
First Published: Friday, December 05, 2008, 00:00