Shiv Sena may not have gained much by joining the Fadnavis government. It did get 12 ministerial berths, but didn't get the deputy CM's post it had desired, nor the home portfolio it had coveted. Sena joining the government would however help BJP overcome its dependence on NCP, which had extended outside support to the minority government.
With 10 Sena ministers due to be sworn in on Friday, there are speculations on who all would make the cut. The party is likely to get portfolios like industries, health, forests, environment, tourism, labour, irrigation, energy, water supply, state excise, PWD and MSRDC.
Addressing a joint press conference with senior Sena leaders, Fadnavis stressed that the government would not have a deputy chief minister.
A senior Sena leader said BJP had told the party that it was not willing to accommodate Sena nominees on various state-run corporations and boards. "They are treating us like the way they are dealing with Ramdas Athavale (RPI-A chief whose demand for inclusion in Union cabinet has not been met yet)," he said.
"There is tremendous unease in the party, and soon it may burst into the open," he said, adding that party cadre was upset at being "humiliated and snubbed".
However, getting 12 ministerial berths of which five will be of cabinet rank, may give Sena some solace.
On cabinet ministers from Sena, the names doing the rounds are those of Diwakar Raote, Ramdas Kadam, Dr Deepak Sawant (all MLCs), Subhash Desai and Eknath Shinde. The probable ministers of state include Ravindra Waikar, Vijay Shivtare, Deepak Kesarkar, Sanjay Rathod and Rajesh Kshirsagar.
In the Sena, there is said to be unease among MLAs from rural Maharashtra over leaders from Mumbai being favoured for ministerial berths. Rathod, who represents Digras in Yavatmal, is one of the two Sena MLAs to have stood their ground in the face of the BJP wave in Vidarbha. For Kshirsagar, it was his second successive win from Kolhapur in Maharashtra's sugar belt. Shivtare, who took on the might of the Pawars in Pune, is an entrepreneur and second-term MLA from Purandar. Kesarkar, who was an NCP MLA from Sawantwadi, switched loyalty to Sena before the LS polls and contributed to the defeat of former industries minister Narayan Rane's son and Congress MP Nilesh Rane from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg. His possible elevation is said to have led to heartburn among local sainiks, who were advancing the cause of Vaibhav Naik.
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