Athawale seeks berths for his party in Maharashtra cabinet too

RPI(A) leader Ramdas Athawale today called on Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and urged him to give berths to his party members in the state cabinet.
Athawale, a prominent Dalit leader from the state, took oath as Union Minister of State for Social Justice two days ago.
On his first visit here after the swearing-in, he paid a visit to Chaityabhoomi, the memorial of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.
Afterwards he called on Fadnavis and thanked him for recommending his name for inclusion in the union cabinet and thereby fulfilling BJP's pre-election promise, said an aide of Athawale's.
"He (Athawale) also requested the Chief Minister to ensure that RPI (A) leaders get berths in his ministry as per the formula agreed upon prior to the 2014 Assembly elections," he added.

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Athawale asked Jayalalithaa to provide government jobs to one of the couples who go in for inter-caste marriages.
He also said there was no chance for the Congress to come to power in Uttar Pradesh.
"In U.P Congress party is not very strong," he said, adding that it had just two (Lok Sabha) MPs, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi from the state.
Athawale said his party the RPI(A) and BJP will join hands for the 2017 Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh and exuded confidence that the combine will capture power.
He rubbished charges of Congress that Modi-led BJP would tamper with the Constitution, adding that such a thing cannot happen as "nobody can change the Constitution."

On the Cauvery River water issue, he said the Apex Court directive should be followed.
The Supreme Court had on September 5 directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu for the next 10 days to address the plight of farmers there.
Athawale also blamed Pakistan on the Kashmir issue and said the state is an integral part of India.