Offers 4 Cabinet And Eight Mos Berths, While Sena Is Waiting For BJP To Give In On Revenue Or Home Portfolio
Mumbai : The BJP-Sena power sharing talks moved a bit ahead on Monday after a late night meeting between Sena leaders Anil Desai, Milind Narvekar and CM Devendra Fadnavis. BJP apparently has gone a step back and offered 4 cabinet and 8 MOS berths. But, Sena is adamant on its demand of at least 5 cabinet berths. One more round of talks is expected to start tonight.
BJP is said to have offered PWD, Power, Industries and Water Resources departments to Sena along with 8 MOS berths. In addition to these, one-third state owned corporations too will go to Sena according to the BJP’s plan. But, since the BJP is not ready to offer the deputy chief minister’s post or the home ministry, one section of Shiv Sena is not ready to join the government.
While Chief Minister Fadnavis is planning to expand his cabinet within a couple of days, Uddhav Thackeray is said to be unhappy even with the new formula proposed by the BJP.
The fresh talks that started on Friday with union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and cooperatives minister Chandrakant Patil meeting Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. Last night Sena leaders met CM Fadnavis. They discussed various formulae till late in the night, sources close to the developments told FPJ. But, still the issue is not resolved.
Shiv Sena is demanding 5 cabinet and 7 MOs berths along with one-third of state owned corporations, sources have said. Sena is waiting for BJP to give in on Revenue or the Home portfolio, they say.
Meanwhile, in a veiled attack on senior Sena leader Ramdas Kadam, Fadnavis said “only the official interlocutors in the BJP-Sena talks should comment on the parleys.”
“My request is that if only those who are official interlocutors talk (to media), then the process will move ahead,” Fadnavis told reporters.
“See, it is like this. If you ask those who come to talk with us, you will know if there is a proposal or not,” the Chief Minister said, referring to claims by some in Sena that there was no “concrete proposal” from BJP on Sena’s participation in the state government.
Fadnavis, who held a meeting with Sena leaders here last night, expressed confidence that a positive outcome would emerge out of the talks.
Two days after BJP formally resumed talks with Sena on the issue of joining the government, Sena leader Ramdas Kadam accused the estranged ally of “fooling” his party by purposefully dragging on power-sharing deliberations.
Kadam also alleged that BJP leader Eknath Khadse, who is the Revenue Minister, was trying hard to “topple” the Fadnavis government as he was not made the Chief Minister of the state.
FPJ Political Bureau
