Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant resigns from Union Minister post

Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises and Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant today resigned from his ministerial post, amid the political developments in Maharashtra. Sawant was sworn in after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the lone Union Minister from Shiv Sena.

At 8:00 AM, news agency ANI posted an update, quoting Sawant, who said, "I am resigning from my ministerial post," thereby confirming the earlier reports of him possibly resigning and the Sena quitting ties with the NDA alliance at the centre.

Sawant will hold a press conference regarding the same at 11 AM in Delhi.

Later Arvind Sawant posted from his official handle on Twitter, saying, "Shiv Sena is on the side of Truth. In such atmosphere why I should be in the central government. I am giving resignation from my ministerial post. I will do a press conference today at 11 AM for the same."

He also accused the BJP in Maharashtra of taking strides towards falsehood. "Prior to the Lok Sabha elections, the allocation of power between the BJP and the Shiv Sena had been decided. Both of them were convinced. Now, denying this formula is a formidable threat to the Shiv Sena. BJP has taken a lot of strides in Maharashtra in the pursuit of falsehood."

This comes as the Shiv Sena is all set to stake claim to form government in Maharashtra with support from the NCP. Earlier, the NCP had told the Shiv Sena that they had to completely sever its ties with the BJP if they wanted to form a government in Maharashtra with the NCP.

Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Sunday invited Shiv Sena, the second-largest party in the assembly, to form the government after the BJP expressed its inability as it does not have the required number to reach the majority mark of 145.

Congress is likely to support the minority Shiv Sena-NCP government from the outside.

Shiv Sena and BJP contested the recently-held assembly elections together but failed to reach an agreement for government formation.

The Shiv Sena's claim of 50-50 government formula, asking for the chief minister's post of two and half years had not been accepted by the BJP.

The BJP won 105 seats and Shiv Sena grabbed 56, together they have the numbers to form the government but both the parties have not been able to break the impasse on sharing the chief minister's post. The relation between the two parties had been consistently declining as they accused each other of lying about the '50-50 formula promise'.

On Friday, with no end in sight to the standoff, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had submitted his resignation to the governor.

Declining Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's invitation to form government in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday said it was not going to go ahead with the government formation as it did not have the required number to prove the majority in the 288-member state assembly.