Lone Shiv Sena minister Anant Geete to quit Union Cabinet

Anant Geete, Shiv Sena's lone member in the Narendra Modi cabinet, will resign, party chief Uddhav Thackeray said here today, four days after the party parted ways with BJP.
"I think after (Prime Minister) Modi returns from the US, Geete will meet him and submit resignation," Uddhav told reporters at his residence here.
Sena sources said the party is likely to pull out of NDA.
Geete, Union Heavy Industries Minister, meanwhile told PTI late tonight that he had not received any directive from Uddhav Thackeray to quit the Modi ministry following BJP snapping the 25-year-old alliance with Sena.
"I have so far not received any directive from Uddhav-ji to resign," Geete told PTI tonight.

"I am a staunch Shiv Sainik. I will obey whatever directive my leader gives me. There is no question of defiance," Geete said.

Uddhav's statement earlier today followed a jibe by his estranged cousin and MNS chief Raj Thackeray at a rally that despite the break-up of the alliance with BJP, Shiv Sena was clinging to power in Delhi.
Sena, NDA's second-largest constituent with 18 Lok Sabha MPs, was upset over poor representation it got in Modi government as well as over Geete's Heavy Industries portfolio, which it considered lightweight. Geete, a six-time MP from Raigad in Konkan, had taken charge of the ministry after a delay of several days.

In NDA government in 1999 headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee, Sena had three Cabinet Ministers despite having fewer MPs. In 2002, it had bagged the coveted post of Lok Sabha Speaker for senior leader Manohar Joshi.