Chhagan Bhujbal makes yet another comeback | Mumbai news

Mumbai: Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal was on Tuesday sworn in as a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government, underscoring the 77-year-old’s enduring relevance in the state’s politics just months after being all but written off when he was excluded from the cabinet in December.

“All is well that ends well,” said Bhujbal at Mantralaya, after his swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhavan, which was attended by Fadnavis, his two deputies, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, and other ministers. “I have been sworn in as a minister several times since 1991 and also handled several portfolios. I am ready to take any responsibility given to me by the chief minister and deputy chief ministers,” he added.

Bhujbal will fill the cabinet berth lying vacant following the resignation of his NCP colleague Dhananjay Munde in March following the arrest of his close aide, Walmik Karad, in connection with the murder of Beed sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh. Bhujbal is also likely to get Munde’s food and civil supplies portfolio, which the MLA from Yevla has held previously under governments led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde.

The timing of the decision to induct Bhujbal, a prominent Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader, in the Maharashtra cabinet is significant considering it’s happening just weeks after the central government decided to include caste enumeration in the upcoming national census. It also comes days after the Supreme Court cleared the path for elections to 687 urban and rural local bodies in Maharashtra later this year.

Bhujbal’s exclusion from the state cabinet in December had raised eyebrows, considering he had supported Ajit Pawar’s rebellion in the NCP in June 2023 that led to a split in the party founded by his political mentor, Sharad Pawar. After Ajit’s NCP faction joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government, Bhujbal was made a minister. However, after the Mahayuti returned to power in 2024, Bhujbal wasn’t included in the NCP’s list of ministers as the party leadership was upset with him for several reasons, including being pressured to nominate his son Pankaj to the legislative council last October.

While Bhujbal has publicly expressed his unhappiness over the snub on several occasions since then, the Mahayuti government’s eventual U-turn was down to chief minister Fadnavis, according to people aware of the developments. “The chief minister had suggested the NCP leadership should consider Bhujbal’s induction in the cabinet. He was of the view that it would help in the consolidation of the OBC votes, after which a decision was taken last Wednesday,” said an NCP leader, who requested anonymity.

Bhujbal’s inclusion strengthens the Mahayuti government’s appeal to the OBC community ahead of the local body elections, at a time when caste-related tensions in the state have been simmering following the Beed sarpanch murder and reservation quota demands. OBCs, estimated to be around 38% of the state’s total population, will play a significant role in these elections, which are being touted as mini-assembly polls.

“In my view, Bhujbal is a senior leader in the country,” said Fadnavis. “He is being seen as a voice of the OBC community and, hence, the NCP decided to bring him back into the cabinet. We have also welcomed the decision.”

Career of comebacks

Regardless of the reasons behind the decision, Bhujbal’s comeback into the state cabinet is hardly the first time he has proved his naysayers wrong.

The son of a vegetable vendor, Bhujbal graduated from Mumbai’s Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) and joined politics at a young age, influenced by Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray. He climbed up the ranks in the party’s hierarchy, became the Mumbai mayor twice and later a Sena MLA from Mazgaon in Mumbai.

However, he rebelled against the party in 1991 when Thackeray picked Manohar Joshi as the leader of the opposition in the state assembly. In the 1995 assembly elections, he was defeated by the then little-known Shiv Sena worker, Bala Nandgaonkar.

In 1996, though, Bhujbal, now part of the Congress, made a comeback and got elected to the state legislative council. With Sharad Pawar’s blessings, he was also made the leader of the opposition in the council and took that opportunity to launch an attack on the incumbent Shiv Sena-BJP government.

In 1999, when Pawar broke away from the Congress and floated the NCP, he picked Bhujbal to be the state president of the new party, which was full of Marathas. Bhujbal was also made deputy chief minister after the NCP formed a coalition government with the Congress later that year. However, he had to quit the position in 2003 after his name was embroiled in the counterfeit stamp paper scam. He faced significant political damage, with allegations that Sharad Pawar used him as a scapegoat to protect others.

Just a year later, though, Bhujbal again managed to make a comeback, as the Congress-NCP combination retained power in 2004. He was back as a minister and again elevated to deputy CM in 2008 when the incumbent, RR Patil, was forced to resign following the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai. Bhujbal kept the post when the Congress-NCP retained power again in 2009.

However, within a year, Bhujbal lost the deputy chief ministership to Ajit Pawar. He was the public works minister between 2010 and 2014, but became embroiled in more controversies. He was jailed from March 2016 to May 2018 after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate for allegedly receiving kickbacks worth crores for awarding various government contracts, including the Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi.

Six months after being released from jail, he returned to power and was among only two leaders who were sworn in as ministers in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government formed in November 2019. Regardless of all these controversies, Bhujbal has also not lost the Yevla constituency in Nashik district since 2004.