A day before the grand swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra’s Chief Minister, suspense over the Shiv Sena’s likely role in the new Government continued on Thursday, with a peeved Sena indicating that it would boycott the oath-taking ceremony over the BJP’s stand that none of its MlAs would be sworn into office on Friday.
Miffed with BJP general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy’s statement that though talks were going on amicably with its erstwhile saffron ally, it was unlikely that the Shiv Sena would be a part of the new Government “as of now”, the Sena cancelled a meeting scheduled for the evening to formalise its stand on joining or otherwise the Fadnavis Government and sent across a message to the BJP that it would stay away from Friday’s swearing-in ceremony.
The Sena, which was expecting a formal word from the BJP on its proposal to them, hardened its stand and chose not to be part of Friday’s ceremony, less than an hour after Rudy tweeted:
“Talks with Shiv Sena going on very amicably. No outcome yet. Seems unlikely Shiv Sena will be part of Government as of now” and spoke along similar lines on television.
After Sena president Uddhav Thackeray cancelled a crucial meeting he was scheduled to hold with his senior party colleagues to formalise the Sena’s stand on the BJP-led Government, senior party leaders authorised Uddhav to take a decision as he deemed fit under the circumstances.
Talking to The Pioneer later in the night, senior Sena leader and Uddhav’s key aide Anil Desai, who along with his party colleague Subhash Desai had held two rounds of talks with Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State for Petroleum, of the BJP, said: “The BJP was to revert back to us on the proposal we had given them. But, it has not come back to us and has also gone against the very spirit of the talks we had with its leaders.”
Alluding to Rudy’s statement, Desai said: “The ball was in fact in the BJP’s court. On one hand, he says talks are going on amicably, while on the other he says that none of our Ministers would be sworn-in at Friday’s ceremony.”
Asked if the Sena was expecting the BJP to induct some of its Ministers into its Cabinet on Friday, Desai said: “The proposal we had given them was a wholesome one. You cannot expect that the BJP would leave our Ministers out of the ceremony. How do you expect us to react under the circumstancesIJ”
Desai, however, declined to spell out the nature of the proposal that he and Subhash Desai had given to Pradhan at their second meeting in New Delhi early this week.
Even as Uddhav held informal consultations with his senior party colleagues, Chief Minister-designate Fadnavis flew to New Delhi, met senior party leader Nitin Gadkari and later held an hour-long meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP’s national president Amit Shah on his proposed ministerial team and the stand to be taken vis-a-vis the Shiv Sena.
Party sources said that the Sena had told the BJP in clear terms that pending a decision on the power-sharing arrangement between them, it wanted at least two of its Ministers to be sworn-in along with a small team of Ministers who will be sworn-in along with Fadnavis.
Talking to media persons outside Thackeray’s Bandra residence earlier in the evening, Uddhav’s close aide Vinayak Raut indicated that the Sena leaders, including the party president, were not keen on attending Friday’s ceremony.
“Some of our MlAs are asking what is the point of joining the new Government if the Shiv Sena is not going to be treated with respectIJ” The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled at 4.30 pm, and let us see if the BJP makes an honourable offer before the ceremony. If the BJP ultimately does not treat honourably, then what is the use in our attending the ceremonyIJ” Raut asked.
At Friday’s ceremony, Fadnavis and at least seven Ministers - mostly the party’s core group members Eknath Khadse, Vinod Tawde, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Pankaja Munde, and a couple of others like late Munde’s confidant and senior MlC Pandurang Phundkar and senior MlA Prakash Mehta - would be sworn into office.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Ministers of the BJP-led ruled States and many of the Union Ministers will attend the swearing-in ceremony to be held at the Wankhede stadium in the presence of at least 30,000 people.Bollywood’s art director Nitin Desai has created a grand stage depicting the ancient and current Maharashtra.Apart from all the former Chief Ministers, including Sushilkumar Shinde, AR Antulay, Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, and Thackeray cousins-Uddhav and Raj, the BJP has invited several prominent personalities to the swearing-in ceremony.
The prominent personalities who have been invited to the oath-taking ceremony include sports personalities Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Dhanraj Pillai and Anjali Bhagwat, film personalities Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and industrialists Ambanis - Mukesh and Anil, Birla and Tata family members, Gautam Adani, Sajjan Jindal and Niranjan Hiranandani to name a few.