First crack in Maha alliance? Sena minister offers to quit Thackeray govt.
MUMBAI Shiv Sena leader Abdul Sattar has resigned from the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, according to Loksatta. The reported resignation came five days after he was inducted into CM Uddhav Thackeray’s Council of Ministers.
Sattar was among the four Muslim leaders who took oath as Ministers on December 30 when Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray undertook the exercise to expand his Cabinet. Besides Sattar, three Muslim leaders who were sworn in as ministers are NCP’s Nawab Malik and Hasan Mushrif and Congress’ Aslam Shaikh.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told that there were no differences in the Cabinet. “If some minister resigns then normally resignation is sent to CM or Raj Bhawan, but both have no information about it yet,” Raut said.
Loksatta also reported Sena leader Arjun Khotkar as saying that the report of resignation by Abdul Sattar are mere rumours.Khotkar told ANI, “There is no question of Abdul Sattar tendering his resignation. These rumours are baseless. Sattar Sahab will meet CM Uddhav Thackeray tomorrow.”
Soon after Sattar was inducted into the government, BJP had questioned Uddhav’s decision. Senior BJP leader Kirit Somaiya alleged that Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray used to say that Sattar was close to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. “Now his son (Uddhav) made him a minister,” he had said.
The three-time MLA from the Sillod constituency was briefly a minister in 2014 in the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra. Just ahead of the Assembly elections in 2019, he left the Congress and joined the Shiv Sena.
Mr Sattar, who was made Minister of State, said he would only speak after meeting party leader and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai tomorrow. “I will meet Shiv Sena president and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray tomorrow and then I will speak,” Abdul Sattar told reporters in Aurangabad, after having been incognito the whole day.
Sena leaders have dismissed reports that Abdul Sattar’s resignation is linked to his not being given a cabinet berth. Senior party leader Sanjay Raut said the matter would be resolved after Chief Minister Thackeray speaks to Mr Sattar.
Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aaditya Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party’s Ajit Pawar and 34 other leaders from Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress were among the politicians who took oath as state cabinet ministers on December 30. Prakash Solanke, the Nationalist Congress Party MLA from Beed district, had resigned hours after the cabinet expansion, but denied reports that his decision was related to not being made a minister.
Union Minister Ramdas Athawale, whose Republican party of India (A) is allied with the BJP, had earlier termed the tri-party government in Maharashtra as an autorickshaw. “Three parties have come together in Maharashtra, but I don’t think the three-wheeler can run for long,” he said, in an apparent reference to the inherent ideological differences between the three allies.
(Bureau Report with inputs from ANI, PTI)
