Squabbling with BJP affected performance of Sena ministers: NCP

Seeking to drive a wedge, the opposition NCP today said almost all cabinet ministers of Shiv Sena have failed to deliver so far due to "infighting" with their alliance partner BJP which heads Maharashtra government.

"Four out of five ministers of Shiv Sena have not been able to take a single decision for their respective departments in the cabinet meetings. The inefficiency of the ministers is due to the infighting between the BJP and Sena. As a result of which the functioning of the departments headed by Sena has come to a standstill," NCP spokesman Nawab Malik told reporters here.

Of the Sena ministers, only Health Minister Deepak Sawant has succeeded in clearing two decisions for his department, he said.

Malik alleged senior Sena ministers like Divakar Raote (transport), Subhash Desai (industry), Ramdas Kadam (environment) and Eknath Shinde (public undertakings) have "drawn a blank."

"It (the scenario) essentially has two meanings. One is that the BJP's chief minister (Devendra Fadnavis) is not letting the Sena proposals being discussed or the Sena has an absolutely incompetent lot of ministers," the NCP leader said.

Terming the NDA government as "incompetent", Malik said it has failed to take even a single people-oriented welfare measure in the last six months.

"The cabinet met 21 times in last six months and 65 decisions have been taken. However, six out of 18 cabinet ministers (of both BJP and Sena) did not bring any proposal before the cabinet. The decisions taken so far are yet to be implemented and Sena needs to clarify its stand related to functioning of its ministers," Malik said.

He said two BJP ministers namely Vishnu Sawra and Girish Mahajan, who hold the portfolios of tribal development and water resources respectively, too have not brought even a single proposal before the cabinet in last six months.

Sena has five cabinet rank ministers in the BJP-led NDA government in the state.

Sena has been taking potshots at the BJP since it joined the government last year and has not spared even prime minister Narendra Modi over various matters.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had only yesterday rejected reports of differences between the two ruling allies.

"We are partners in the government and there is no discontent about anyone," he had told reporters.