Shiv Sena boycotts cabinet meet

Mumbai: Dissatisfied with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ announcement of loan waiver to small land holding farmers, the Shiv Sena, which is the BJP’s ally in the state government, on Wednesday, boycotted the weekly cabinet meeting. The party has been demanding a complete loan waiver for the farmers. In a bid to call its bluff, the BJP said that the Sena had already informed the CM of their absence.

The Sena was also unhappy as it had not been taken into consideration by the CM while handling the on-going farmers’ strike. After the boycott, Sena workers  agitated in different parts of the state, shouting slogans against the government. In Beed, the protests took a very different form as two women party workers shaved their heads in a mark of protest.  

Demanding complete loan waiver, Sena leader and industries minister Subhash Desai said that no decision on the issue could be taken without consulting party chief Uddhav Thackeray. “We want the government to make the farmers 7/12 (land record document) clear. We want the CM to clear his stand on the loan waiver. We need a reply from the government on why the farmers are agitating today across the state. They will have to consider Sena while giving loan waiver. It cannot be given without consulting Uddhavji Thackeray,” Desai said, after skipping the meeting.

However, finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said that the Sena ministers had informed the CM of their decision. “There was no boycott by the Sena ministers. They informed the CM that they would remain absent in the cabinet. We had taken Sena into confidence on the GST implementation and will do so in the same manner on the loan waiver. Uddhav Thackeray has gone abroad and we will also ask him for his views once he comes back,” Mungantiwar said.

BJP leader and revenue minister Chandrakant Patil too had much of the same to say. “The Sena needed time to make a comment on the on going strike as their leader Uddhav Thackeray is out of country. Hence they sought the CM’s permission to remain absent from the cabinet meeting. It is not correct to term it as boycott,” he said.

However, sources in the Sena said that the party was not once asked by the CM to express its views. “Many BJP ministers too are also not aware of the loan waiver properly. The Sena was not even invited to negotiate with the farmers and that has irked many senior ministers in the party,” sources said. The CM alone was seen handling the crisis, right from the beginning, keeping away the other ministers from his party.