Former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray on Wednesday said that some Shiv Sena leaders who are “trapped” in chief minister Eknath Shinde’s faction are now “contacting” the Uddhav Thackeray-led camp following the state cabinet expansion. Aaditya said the doors are open for everyone who wants to rejoin Uddhav’s group. He also challenged all the leaders who are part of the Shinde camp to tender their resignation and face elections.
In an apparent swipe at the role of Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra deputy chief minister and BJP leader, in the government, Aaditya said that everyone knows who the “real chief minister” is. His statement came days after Fadnavis was given the charge of several key portfolios, including home, finance and others.
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The former Maharashtra minister said that the new cabinet, which is a coalition of Shinde-led Sena and the BJP, has neither heard Mumbai’s voice nor the voice of women or independent MLAs, news agency PTI reported.
The Uddhav-led camp has been lashing out at the Shinde faction since the Maharashtra cabinet expansion that took place more than a month after Shinde and Fadnavis took oath in their respective roles, saying many vital portfolios have been allocated to the BJP.
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The 20-member cabinet does not have a single woman or independent legislator. Furthermore, the first 14-15 MLAs who had switched over to Shinde’s side when he began his rebellion against the Uddhav-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in June, have not found a place in the cabinet.
The sole cabinet minister from the metropolis is Mangal Prabhat Lodha, the BJP MLA from Malabar Hill in south Mumbai. “So there is no place for loyalty,” Aaditya told reporters outside the state legislature in Mumbai.
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The junior Thackeray said rebels who have received a cabinet berth have been “downgraded” in a reference to Sena lawmakers who have been given portfolios deemed as low-key, the PTI report added.
Ever since the Shinde-led rebellion shook the Uddhav-led Sena leading to a fall of the MVA government, Aaditya has been hitting out at rebel MLAs calling them ‘gaddars’ (traitors).