In a surprising turnaround, the Shiv Sena is not likely to withdraw its lone MP from the Narendra Modi cabinet after its acrimonious split with the BJP. Earlier, Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had said that party MP and Union heavy industries minister Anant Geete would resign after Modi returned from his US tour. This had come after Uddhav's estranged cousin and MNS chief Raj Thackeray had launched a broadside at the Shiv Sena for not pulling out of the Union cabinet despite BJP snapping ties with it.
However, Geete, while speaking to dna, said Uddhav had given him no instruction so far to resign from the council of ministers. He claimed that the Sena deserved a lion's share of the success of the six-party Mahayuti's unprecedented sweep of 42 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra and hence deserved to be in cabinet.
He also denied that the seeds of the Sena-BJP split were sown when the BJP denied the Sena its due share of representation in the cabinet despite being the second-largest party in NDA and claimed that the fallout was "purely over seat-sharing".
"The NDA government is in power and Sena is part of it. We also have a share in the victory of the 42 (NDA) MPs elected from Maharashtra. So, my resignation is not necessary," said Geete, who represents Raigad Lok Sabha constituency, stressing that even if the BJP had snapped ties with the Sena, they were still part of the NDA.
"There is no question of us leaving as the government has come to power because of us," added Geete.
He claimed that there was no issue of a rift being created in the two parties over Sena not getting adequate representation in the cabinet despite being its only natural ally in the NDA. "The alliance was broken by the BJP purely over seat-sharing," claimed Geete, who trounced state NCP chief and then minister Sunil Tatkare from Raigad.
After the Modi-led cabinet was sworn in, the Sena was unhappy that despite having 18 MPs in the front and the common agenda of Hindutva, they had been given an "insignificant" portfolio while other allies like the TDP got departments like civil aviation.
The Sena also wanted more cabinet berths apart from gubernatorial postings and the non-fulfilment of this demand was one of the flashpoints in the 25-year-old alliance.
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