Sena: Prabhu was needed for party work

The Shiv Sena said on Thursday that chief Bal Thackeray had asked Suresh Prabhu to resign as Union Power Minister as he was needed for party...

The Shiv Sena said on Thursday that chief Bal Thackeray had asked Suresh Prabhu to resign as Union Power Minister as he was needed for party work.

The decision had been taken on the lines of a move by the BJP, which in the recent cabinet reshuffle, deputed Arun Jaitely and Venkaiah Naidu for organisational work, sources said.

The Sena mouthpiece Saamna quoted party sources denying reports that Thackeray was in any manner ‘‘unhappy’’ with Prabhu, whose work in the sector of power reforms, he had acknowledged.

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Meanwhile, sources said Anand Adsul, Shiv Sena MP from Buldhana, is likely to be appointed as Union Minister of State for France. Adsul will step into the shoes of Anant Geete, who it is believed will be promoted to the cabinet rank to replace Prabhu.

The names of the two leaders were cleared by Sena chief Bal Thackeray, according to sources. Fifty-five-year-old Adsul is a veteran trade union leader. He was ‘‘sampark pramukh’’ in Buldhana when he was noticed by the party high command and fielded as a candidate in the 1995 Lok Sabha elections. Adsul won that election by a huge margin, defeating high profile Congress candidate Mukul Wasnik.

In 1997, he was defeated by Wasnik, only to turn the tables in the next elections, when Adsul once again defeated the senior Congress leader.