Senior Shiv Sena legislators Gulabrao Patil (Jalgaon rural) and Arjun Khotkar (Jalna) will take oath as ministers of state even as the BJP and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis refused to heed the Sena's demand for an extra cabinet berth.
After days of will they, won't they speculations, the Shiv Sena will join the expansion of the Devendra Fadnavis-led cabinet in Maharashtra on Friday, with a partly control over the powerful Home department.
Senior Shiv Sena legislators Gulabrao Patil (Jalgaon rural) and Arjun Khotkar (Jalna) will take oath as ministers of state even as the BJP and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis refused to heed the Sena's demand for an extra cabinet berth.
Sources said Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had demanded that one of the party's five ministers of state be upgraded to cabinet rank and it get two minister of state berths. According to the power sharing pact between the Shiv Sena and the BJP, the former is supposed to get 12 berths in the council of ministers, of which two are vacant. The party has five cabinet ministers and an equal number of ministers of state.
Shiv Sena ministers Subhash Desai and Diwakar Raote met Uddhav on Thursday morning before heading to meet chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at his official residence of Varsha on Malabar Hill for parleys. However, despite the Shiv Sena trying to drive a hard bargain, the BJP refused to relent.
With four of the party's five cabinet ministers being members of the legislative council, there were rumblings within the rank-and-file. Shiv Sena legislators and leaders from rural and urban areas other than Mumbai-Thane, where the party has a formidable presence, felt that the Sena needed to shift its focus away and promote leaders from upcountry regions. "We have to promote leaders from the rural areas," admitted a Sena legislator.
The names of several Sena MLAs like Patil, Khotkar, Dr Sujit Minchekar (Hatkangale in Kolhapur) and Pratap Patil Chikhalikar (Loha in Nanded) and MLC Dr Neelam Gorhe were being discussed as probables. Patil, who belongs to the Gujar Patil community having strong pockets of influence in North Maharashtra, is an aggressive leader known for his fierce speeches. Incidentally, Patil, a three-term MLA, is a known detractor of senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse, who had to step down as the revenue minister following allegations of irregularities. Both Patil and Khadse belong to Jalgaon.
Khotkar, who is known for his aggressive speeches on issues like agrarian distress is a third fourth term MLA from Jalna district in Marathwada. He was a minister of state during the erstwhile Shiv Sena- BJP government which ruled Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999 and also has influence over local co-operative bodies. Both Patil and Khopkar were deployed by the Shiv Sena to take on the BJP in the legislative assembly.
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