Shiv Sena set to join BJP govt, may get 12 seats in Cabinet

BJP sticks to to its guns, rejects Sena's demand for deputy CM's post and home ministry

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena could soon bury the hatchet and resume the alliance they had broken before the Maharashtra elections in October.

Shiv Sena is likely to get five cabinet berths and seven ministers of state from its ranks. However, it will have to be contend without getting the post of the deputy chief minister.

Attacked for accepting the Nationalist Congress Party’s outside support, the BJP has decided to include the Shiv Sena in the expanded council of ministers of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Fadnavis is expected to expand his nine-member cabinet on December 5. Ten to 12 legislators from BJP and 12 from Shiv Sena will be inducted. The expansion, which was slated for December 3, had to be postponed due to the three-day mourning following the death of former chief minister A R Antulay.

Fadnavis and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray are expected to make a formal announcement in this regard in a day or two. Sena leader Eknath Shinde, who took over on November 12, will resign from the post of the Leader of the Opposition. BJP has 121 legislators with support of one MLA of Rashtriya Samaj Party while Shiv Sena's strength is 63. Fadnavis had won confidence motion by voice vote and had claimed it had mobilised support of 140 legislators.

The BJP high command was quite keen for a patch ahead of winter session starting December 8. However, a senior BJP leader told Business Standard: “'Utterances made by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde about Sena playing a role of vigilant opposition was mere posturing.”

Sena MP Anil Desai, after his meeting with Uddhav and other party leaders on Tuesday afternoon, said: “The party has received BJP’s proposal and Uddhav will discuss with Fadnavis and take a final call. So far the party has not taken any decision on joining the BJP-led government in the state.”

However, Fadnavis in the late evening confirmed that discussions with Sena were in currently underway. He announced that BJP-Shiv Sena  alliance government will soon be a reality. He added the cabinet expansion will take place on December 5.

BJP and Shiv Sena broke their 25-year-old alliance on September 25 due to differences over seat adjustment in the Assembly poll. Uddhav and a couple of Sena leaders led a scathing attack against the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah during and after polls. Simultaneously, back channel negotiations were on to revive the alliance though BJP flatly refused to give the post of deputy chief minister and key ministries including home, finance and revenue to Shiv Sena. However, Sena may be given the public works, energy and water conservation ministries.

Sena sources said  senior party leader Subhash Desai, who lost assembly poll along with Divakar Raote, Eknath Shinde, Vijay Shivthare are likely to be sworn in as cabinet ministers.

Besides,  Sanjay Rathod (Vidarbha), Sanjay Shirsat (Marathwada) and Vaibhav Naik, the Konkan MLA who defeated Congress leader Narayan Rane in the Assembly elections, former Mumbai mayor Sunil Prabhu and legislator Neelam Gorhe may be inducted as ministers of state.