New Delhi: After the break-up of Shiv Sena and BJP in Maharashtra, Sena Minister Anant Geete is all set to resign from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet on Monday.
Being the only minister from Shiv Sena in the NDA government, Geete is about to quit after Modi returns from his US trip on Wednesday. He was the Union Minister of Heavy Industries.
According to reports, Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray declared, “After PM Modi returns from US, Anant Geete will meet and submit his resignation from the central government.”
The decision was announced after Home Minister Rajnath Singh said there has been no decision on his continuation in the government. “The party has to take a decision. We have not had any discussions about him. The issue has not come into our consideration yet,” senior party leader and Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday.
He added, “It’s very unfortunate. We discussed it for long but, unfortunately, it (the talks) did not work out.”
The announcement was made by Uddhav Thackeray, a day after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray said that Sena was hanging on to power despite the alliance being called off. He declared, “Geete will no longer remain in the Cabinet.”
While addressing the election rally, Thackeray reportedly said, “Do you think that the BJP can now be trusted after what they did to the Shiv Sena? Some BJP leader told me that they had planned the break-up long ago.Â
The BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party will contest the October 15 elections separately for Maharashtra polls.
The 25-year-old BJP-Shiv Sena’s alliance was over a week ago, after the parties failed to resolve the tussle of seat-sharing for the Maharashtra assembly elections.