Shinde loyalist Bharatshet Gogawale claims MLAs blackmailed Maharashtra CM for cabinet berth

An MLA from Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena Bharat Gogawale has claimed that he was ignored as a genuine contender and that three party MLAs coerced the Maharashtra CM to secure the ministry positions.

During a political event in Raigad on Thursday, Gogawale claimed how some MLAs resorted to emotional blackmail and threats to bag a cabinet berth. Gogwale revealed that when the ministerial allocation took place, his name was in the first list. One Sena MLA told the CM that if he is not inducted as a minister, his wife will commit suicide. The CM told me that he’d have to save the woman’s life, Gogawale said.

Another threatened that if he didn't become a minister, Narayan Rane will finish him off. Gogawale asserted that still another MLA made a threat to quit right away following the swearing-in event. He added, his name is still on the waiting list. When Ajit Pawar and his MLA were inducted as ministers, that time also, I was told that I would take the oath with Ajit Pawar. I waited for it, but no one asked me to take the oath.