MUMBAI, May 2: The ongoing cold war between the parties in the saffron alliance in the State has taken a serious turn with the Bharatiya Janata Party asking Chief Minister Manohar Joshi to refrain from either reshuffling or expanding the Cabinet till the disputes between the Sena and the BJP are settled to its satisfaction.``After a high-level meeting of senior party leaders, it was decided to communicate our sentiments to the Chief Minister. Accordingly, state president and Rajya Sabha member Suryabhan Wahadane urged Joshi to resolve the row over delicate issues pending before the alliance,'' a senior BJP leader told The Indian Express.The BJP functionary said if the doubts and demands raised by them were not settled, they will not hesitate to boycott the Cabinet expansion. ``We are firm on our demands. If we are taken for granted, we will not participate in the Cabinet expansion programmne,'' he pointed out.Though Chief Minister Manohar Joshi was not available for comments, he reportedlyassured Wahadane that he was prepared to settle all the doubts raised by the BJP across the table.By and large, the feeling among the senior BJP ministers is that the alliance is not functioning as a cohesive government, but it works like two different administrations, the BJP leader said, adding that their grievances were also brought to the notice of Sena chief Bal Thackeray.BJP Ministers feel that they were not consulted on the appointments of secretaries of their departments, collectors of their respective districts and in allotment of schools. ``We feel that we should be consulted while important appointments concerning our department. But, very rarely we were taken into confidence,'' a senior BJP minister said.Quoting a specific example, the minister said the secretaries of the departments controlled by BJP were transferred very frequently in violation of the rules and guidelines prescribed by the General Administration.``After the alliance government came to power, the Rural DevelopmentDepartment headed by veteran BJP leader Anna Dange has witnessed seven secretaries. Similar is the case with the Medical Education, Public Health and Tribal Development Departments,'' the minister pointed out.Even in the matter of allocation of work to Ministers of State, great injustice has been done to the Ministers of State belonging to the BJP. ``As per rules of business, specific work has to be allotted to the Minister of State by his cabinet minister. Accordingly, all the cabinet ministers of BJP have allotted work to their Ministers of state of the Shiv Sena. However, a similar gesture has not been shown by Cabinet Ministers of the Shiv Sena towards their Ministers of State belonging to BJP,'' the minister added.So far as the question of allotment of new schools is concerned, it appears that more weightage is given to independent legislators. ``In Satara district, a school was allotted to district unit of the BJP. However, when the official orders were passed, it was found that the school hasbeen allotted to an independent legislator,'' he discloses.Even while appointing non-officials to state-run federations and committees, the BJP has been completely ignored. ``On the Cotton Growers Federation, out of the 14 non-official members, seven belong to the Shiv Sena, while the remaining seven, should have been of BJP, but have not been appointed so far. While constituting the Haj Committee too, the BJP has been completely ignored,'' the minister disclosed.
