Mumbai: The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government has planned to form a cabinet berth for the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) on the lines of Prime Minister Office (PMO).
Even though the Maha Vikas Aghadi government is yet to allocate portfolios to its ministers, this is the first time in the State that there would be a cabinet minister for CMO. The Sena has reportedly chosen Anil Parab to become the first cabinet minister for the State CMO.
Parab is known to be close to Matoshree and handles all legal issues related to the Thackeray family as an advocate.
According to the sources from Shiv Sena, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is not going to keep any portfolio with him except for the general administration department (GAD). So he will only deal with the GAD and other related important issues and policy matters. Whereas, Parab will filter and screen all the files before sending them to the CM for final approval. With this, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has also appointed retired Deputy Municipal Commissioner (DMC) Sudhir Naik as an officer on special duty. Naik has worked as DMC for the last ten years and is an expert in handling urban issues.
Since Uddhav Thackeray has to manage both the party and the State government, he is likely to handle only GAD and rest of the CMO’s burden will be shifted to Parab and Naik.
From last Monday, Parab has been seen attending all the meetings with Thackeray. The announcement regarding portfolio allocation is to be made on Monday.
