Nine Shiv Sena leaders left out of Thackeray ministry

Ravindra Waikar, one of the Sena leaders left out of the cabinet

Nine of the 14 Shiv Sena leaders, who were in the previous cabinet led by BJP's Devendra Fadnavis, were not given any ministerial berths on Monday. The old guns of Shiv Sena are reportedly upset at being ignored by the Uddhav Thackeray government.

Those who were left out of the new ministry include senior leaders and Sena loyalists Ramdas Kadam, Diwakar Raote and Ravindra Waikar. In the previous government, Kadam was the environment minister, Raote the transport minister and Waikar the technical education minister. Jaydutt Kshirsagar, Tanaji Sawant, Vijay Shivtare, Deepak Kesarkar, Deepak Sawant and Arjun Khotkar are the other Sena leaders who have been left out of the state cabinet.

Shiv Sena seems to have also taken into consideration the grievances of party leaders who were upset when five MLCs got ministerial berths in the previous government. More elected representatives (MLAs) have been taken on board the Thackeray ministry.

A Sena source said, "Raote and Kadam were considered Sena loyalists from the time of Bal Thackeray but they were not given any ministerial berths because they were MLCs, not MLAs, and many MLAs were upset about being left out." The present cabinet now only has two MLCs - Anil Parab and Subhash Desai.

"If you see the list of people many are from the rural areas and are MLAs whereas the previous list consisted of MLCs and to change that we have added new names. This will ensure that the rural representation from our party is also there and we are not taken as someone who only focuses on urban issues," said Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande.

Speaking about reports that the three Sena loyalists were unhappy about not getting a post in the new cabinet, Kayande said, "There was no performance issue with these leaders and no one is upset, and the decision [to leave them out] is just to give a chance to new faces."

The Sena had 14 ministers in the previous ministry, but it only has 11 in the current one. It has given the three other posts to Independents -- Bacchu Kadu Achalpur, Shankarrao Gaddakh and Rajendra Yedravkar.

Aaditya Thackeray, Anil Parab, Abdul Sattar, Dadaji Bhuse, Gulabrao Patil, Sandipan Bhumre, Sanjay Rathod, Shambhuraj Desai, Uday Samant, Subhash Desai and Eknath Shinde are the 11 ministers from Sena.

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