OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal on Friday was allocated the food and civil supplies portfolio. A couple of months ago, when there was buzz about the Mahayuti government’s plans to end the subsidised Shiv Bhojan Thali scheme, despite being a ruling party MLA, Bhujbal was in favour of retaining the programme. Now that Bhujbal has become minister of the department that runs the scheme, it remains to be seen if the programme will survive or the government will shelve the initiative.

Last year, soon after the Mahayuti government comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-headed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) came to power, there was buzz about government plans to wind up the Shiv Bhojan Thali scheme, which was started by the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar-led NCP-SP.