Amid reports of his resignation from the Maharashtra cabinet, Shiv Sena MLA Abdul Sattar said he would speak about it after meeting Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday. Reports had claimed that Sattar, upset over not being given a prominent position in the cabinet, resigned as a minister from the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
"I will meet Shiv Sena president and Chief Minister Thackeray in Mumbai tomorrow and then I will speak," Sattar, MLA from Sillod in Aurangabad district, told reporters in Mumbai on Saturday evening.
The legislator, who had quit the Congress and joined the Sena ahead of the assembly elections, took oath on December 30 as a minister of state in the try-party coalition government.
The Sena has dismissed reports of Sattar's resignation and said Thackeray would talk to the MLA.
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"Sattar had a word with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and (senior Sena leader) Eknath Shinde. Thackeray has called him to Mumbai on Sunday. The CM will meet Sattar at Matoshri (the Thackeray residence) at 12.30 pm," Sena leader Khotkar said.
Earlier, senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut also said Thackeray would speak to Sattar over the issue.
"Whenever cabinet expansion is taken up, some leaders are left disappointed over not getting the position of their choice. But they should understand that this is a government of the Maha Vikas Agadi and not Shiv Sena," Raut said, reported NDTV.
Meanwhile, another Sena leader Chandrakant Khaire called Sattar a “traitor” and alleged that the MLA's supporters did not back the Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate in the Zilla Parishad election.
Reports of Sattar's resignation come even as several Congress leaders are reportedly unhappy over not being given positions in the state cabinet. The tri-party coalition formed government in the state after Sena snapped alliance with the BJP and joined hands with the Congress and the NCP.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and six of his council members, two each from the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, had taken oath on November 28. The first cabinet expansion took place on December 30. The full-fledged allocation of portfolios, however, is yet to be done.
News agency PTI quoted sources as saying that the Congress, which has been seeking two additional berths in the government, submitted its list of ministers with the departments allocated to them to the chief minister on Friday.
According to the earlier portfolio-sharing arrangement the three parties had decided that the Congress is to get 12 ministries in the 43-member council of ministers.