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Sena faces double barrage

Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay

The simmering crisis in the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra took a serious turn today, with senior BJP leaders from the state meeting Sena chief Bal Thackeray to criticise Chief Minister Manohar Joshi's style of functioning. The Sena faced another setback earlier on, with Environment Minister Ganesh Naik refusing to resign from the cabinet despite being told to do so by Thackeray.

Despite these twin developments, Joshi went ahead with his planned cabinet reshuffle. Through much of the day, however, the raging war within the Sena had cast a shadow over the ministerial shuffle; four hours after the new ministers's names were expected to be made public, the names were finally revealed late on Thursday evening. The ministers will be sworn in on Saturday.

The BJP delegation, led by its state president Suryabhan Wahadne, complained to Thackeray that though an alliance partner, the party was being kept out of key decisions by Joshi.

A BJP leader from Maharashtra told Rediff On The NeT, "Joshi never consulted us while appointing secretaries and corporation heads. Therefore, we led a delegation against him to Thackeray."

"The Sena chief has agreed to set up an informal committee headed by him which will meet whenever important decisions are to be taken. The first meeting of this committee will be held on May 11 at his house, Matoshree, in which Joshi and Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde will take part," he added.

Interestingly, neither Joshi nor Munde was present when the delegation called on Thackeray today.

"Importance was also placed on strengthening the ties between the BJP and Sena workers, since there was a lot of communication gap between the two during the general election," added the source.

The resentment against Joshi has burst into the open days after the chief minister told a press conference that he did not know how long he will continue in his post.

Meanwhile, sources close to Ganesh Naik said the minister is all set to revolt and is ready to form a new party, with nearly 20 Sena MLAs supporting him.

However, they also maintained that Naik will follow a wait-and-watch policy instead of taking a hasty decision, since he needs nearly 25 MLAs to escape the provisions of the anti-defection law.

"Let the new cabinet be sworn in on May 9 and then you will see a series of resignations by Sena MLAs who will join Ganesh Naik," they said.

Naik, an Agri, is upset with the Sena chief since he is alleged to have supported upper caste Brahmins and Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus leaders in his area of influence, New Bombay.

"All the Sena leaders in our area are from the upper castes, no one is from the Agri community, an OBC. Be it the member of Parliament Prakash Paranjpe, a Brahmin, or Thane Sena leader Anand Dighe, who is a CKP. In fact, the BJP's Rajya Sabha MP from Thane, Ram Kapse, is also a Brahmin," added these aides.

As the name implies, the Agri community is largely agrarian, with most members occupied as farmers, fishermen or salt-pan workers. They are mostly based in three areas of Maharashtra, Bombay, Thane and Raigad district.

Interestingly, many of the senior Sena leaders are from the upper castes. While Thackeray is a CKP, Joshi, Cultural Minister Pramod Navalkar and Education Minister Sudhir Joshi are Brahmins. Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, Bombay Mayor Nandu Sattam and Gajanan Kirtikar are Marathas.

Things have been uneasy between Naik and Thackeray since last year, when the Sena chief ordered Naik to close down the quarries which were being run illegally by the minister's family. However, Naik managed to win over Thackeray and continued with his work.

When Thackeray again breathed fire against him last month, Naik moved out of his official bungalow in the posh Malabar Hill area and started operating from his office in New Bombay. Yesterday, Thackeray showed his resentment against Naik by asking him to quit.

Naik's exit will come as a severe blow to the Sena since he was one of the main fund-raisers in the party, with good contacts with businessmen as well as unions. He is considered to be among the richest politicians in the Sena, and is said to own a private plane.

Joshi has refused to comment on Naik's allegations, apart from saying that whatever he knew was from newspapers reports, and there was no formal complaint from Naik to him.

In the 288 member state assembly, the Sena has 73 MLAs, the BJP has 64 MLAs, and are supported by nearly 20 Independent rebel Congress MLAs.

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