Meet Aditi Tatkare, First Woman Minister In New Maharashtra Government

Maharashtra's politics took a major turn when Nationalist Congress Party's Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde government on Sunday along with eight MLAs. Taking oath as a minister among the nine MLAs was Aditi Tatkare, the first woman minister in the new government.

Ajit Pawar's move was long being speculated, but NCP did not know that he would execute his plan while Sharad Pawar was not present. His oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of  Maharashtra brought major changes in the Shinde-Fadnavis government, like onboarding its first female minister in the form of Aditi Tatkare. The MLA from Shrivardhan was an important face of the NCP and had a strong political family background. Here's everything you need to know about her.

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Who Is Aditi Tatkare?

Aditi Sunil Tatkare is the daughter of senior NCP member Sunil Tatkare, the MLA from Raigad, who was a minister in the former NCP-Congress government. In the 2019 Maharashtra elections, she became the MLA of Shrivardhan. A resident of Raigad's Roha town, the MLA held the Presidentship of Raigad Zilla Parishad from 2017 to 2019. She was also Raigad district's Guardian Minister in the Maharashtra government from 2020 to 2022.

On winning the 2019 elections, she was appointed as a Minister of State Additional Charge in the MVA government and managed departments like law and judiciary, protocol, horticulture, tourism, mining, sports and youth welfare, information and public relations and industries.

Eknath Shinde-led government has always been criticised for not having any female ministers. The Maha Vikas Aghadi government of 2019 had three women ministers, and this comparison allowed NCP's Supriya Sule to criticise the current government for not including women in the cabinet. In August 2022, the government was reportedly discussing the names of some women MLAs to be minis,ters but that did not happen. Tatkare's oath is expected to create a slight change in that scenario.