Prominent OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal was Friday named as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra by the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.
NEW DELHI: Prominent OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal was Friday named as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra by the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.
He said his top priorities will be to modernise the police force and bring back a sense of security among citizens rattled by the Mumbai terror strikes.
"My immediate priority is to provide the police force with all equipments and facilities to enable them to take on terrorists and other criminals," Bhujbal said here after Pawar
announced him as the successor of R R Patil.
Bhujbal, a key OBC leader in Maharashtra, will also handle the post of Home Minister.
The senior NCP leader, who faced allegations of shielding Abdul Telgi, the accused in the fake stamp paper scam, made light of the charges. "The court has absolved me," he said.
In the wake of the audacious terror attacks, Bhujbal said there will not be any pomp or celebration associated with his swearing ceremony as Deputy Chief Minister.
NCP has already announced that Pawar's birthday, falling on December 12 will be a simple affair.
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.
Bhujbal, who belongs to the Mali community, had humble a beginning as a vegetable vendor. He became a Shiv Sena activist nearly 40 years back and rose in its ranks with his oratorial skills to become a close aide to Sena supremo Bal Thackeray who made him the Mayor of Mumbai.
However, differences cropped up between him and Thackeray leading to his defection to the Congress in 1993. After Pawar quit the Congress to form the NCP, Bhujbal joined him.
Recently, the NCP leader took the political circles by surprise as he withdrew an 11-year-old defamation case filed by him against Thackeray.
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