Pune city has lost its voice again. The lone minister from the city in the erstwhile Ashok Chavan ministry, Ramesh Bagwe, has been dropped from the new cabinet formed by chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.
The state cabinet was expanded on Friday. Bagwe, who was the minister of state for home, failed to retain his berth.
There are 11 MLAs from both Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, besides three MLCs from Pune.
A Congress legislator from the Pune Cantonment assembly constituency, Bagwe is considered a protege of city Congress MP, Suresh Kalmadi. Moreover, he is from the backward Matang community. These two factors had enabled him to secure a ministerial berth in the erstwhile government.
The other contender for a berth, Shivijinagar legislator Vinayak Nimhan, was also ignored in the cabinet expansion.
Congress city unit president Abhay Chhajed admitted that the Congress camp is dejected as there is no representation in the ministry from the city. “We will take up the issue with the authorities in the party demanding at least one minister from Pune,” he said.
It was after five years that an MLA from the city had got a ministerial berth after the Congress-NCP coalition formed the government last year.
The city had two ministers till 2004, when Congress-NCP government fought the assembly elections under the leadership of the then chief minister, Sushilkumar Shinde. Chandrakant Chhajed and Balasaheb Shivarkar were members in Shinde’s cabinet.
Though the Congress-NCP combine came to power after the 2004 elections, Pune did not get any representation in the state cabinet. The Congress camp leaders argued that a minister from the city was imperative to highlight and resolve its problems in the ministry.
They apprehended that the NCP leaders played a role in denying a ministerial berth for the Congress from the city. “Pune is one of the fastest growing cities in India. But it has got its share of problems too, which need to be addressed. Unless the city has a minister, it would be difficult to turn the attention of the state government and redress them,” said a Congress leader.
Some Congress leaders said it would be impossible for Ajit Pawar alone to pay attention to problems plaguing the city after he became deputy chief minister. “Hence we needed a minister hailing from the city,” said a Congress leader.
