Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and Maharashtra Minister Jayant Patil on Thursday said that the party has decided to temporarily give charge of portfolios held by NCP leader Nawab Malik to different people but will not take his resignation.
"He will continue to be a Minister. We are not taking his resignation. Since he has been arrested he hasn't been able to carry out his duties so his responsibilities will be temporarily given to different people. NCP Mumbai chief responsibility of Nawab Malik will be given temporarily to Narendra Rane and Rakhi Jadhav as new additional working presidents," Patil said while addressing media persons.
Mr Malik is the chief of NCP's Mumbai unit and also the guardian minister for Parbhani and Gondia districts.
"The charge of Mr Malik's guardian ministerships of Parbhani and Gondia will be given to Social Justice Minister Dhananjay Munde and Minister of State for Urban Development Prajakt Tanpure, respectively. A formal request in this regard will be made to the chief minister, the NCP minister added.
He further said the names will be declared after the same is informed to the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Mr Patil said that this is an alternative arrangement until Mr Malik gets justice.
On BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis's remark that the BJP will come to power in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly polls, Patil said, "I thank him on behalf of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) for saying that the alliance will be in power till 2024. If you are sitting in opposition, act as the right opponent this is our advice to them."
On Mr Fadnavis's recent allegation against MVA government for hatching a conspiracy to target BJP leaders and on him (Fadnavis) submitting a pen drive as proof in the state Assembly, the Maharashtra Minister said, "the authenticity of the content in the pen drive needs to be verified. It is wrong to present in front of people without checking the truth."
Mr Malik was arrested on February 23 and is currently in judicial custody in connection with Dawood Ibrahim money laundering case.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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