Ahead of reshuffle, Shiv Sena keen on another central berth for party

The Shiv Sena with 18 members of Parliament has a lone representative, Anant Geete, as the Union Minister for Heavy Industries. The BJP, while keen to retain the support of its ally, sees no reason to go out of its way for the Sena, insiders said.

A source in the BJP said, “The Centre-state leadership of the BJP believes they should maintain the status quo with its oldest alliance partner, Shiv Sena. The Sena should be offered what is their due in terms of numbers, but there is no need to make extra efforts to please the leadership.”

However, the party does not want to antagonise the Sena. A political manager in the BJP said, “Since this is going to be the biggest and probably the last mega-reshuffle ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, we are reaching out to all our allies. The Sena is a valuable partner in Maharashtra.”

A senior Sena leader said, “Thackeray is also going to adopt a pragmatic approach. On matters related to policies, the Sena will attack the BJP. After all, we are two separate parties. But when it comes to coalition politics to keep the government intact, we will support the BJP both at the Centre and the state.”

However, the biggest dilemma for the Sena leadership is to keep its own aspirants in check. Last time, Thackeray had proposed the name of Anil Desai as a junior minister at the Centre. But that led to half-a-dozen of its senior elected members expressing disappointment. An insider said, “Even if the BJP were to concede to our demand, Thackeray will have to firefight lot of problems in-house to select a candidate.”

Another development is a section within the BJP propping the candidature of Sambhaji Raje, a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji and Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj, who was nominated from the BJP quota to the Rajya Sabha last year. Raje’s induction in the Union cabinet is to negate the politics of Maratha reservation. Raje, who represents the Marathas from the erstwhile princely state of Kolhapur in western Maharashtra, is perceived as a credible face within the community. Politically, the BJP believes, Raje’s induction in the Modi government will help undermine the Congress-NCP’s political clout in western Maharashtra, which has always traditionally remained their bastion.