July 28: Independent legislators supporting the Sena-BJP government have raised an unexpected demand. They feel that their nominees in the Cabinet should be selected by rotation.``We feel that three of the Ministers - Anil Deshmukh, Babasaheb Dhabekar and Harshavardhan Patil - who have completed two-and-half-years in the alliance government should be replaced by new legislators. We will soon meet Bal Thackeray and Chief Minister Manohar Joshi to press for our demand,'' a senior legislator told Express Newsline.The otherwise silent independents suddenly became active after the alliance government plunged into crisis, following the death of 11 dalits in police firing on July 11 and attack on the official residences of senior Congress leaders Chhagan Bhujbal and Madhukar Pichad. By and large, the independent legislators were thinking that in view of the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, the Centre would impose President's rule in the state or keep the assembly under suspended animation to facilitate Congress rule.As a result, some of them were contemplating withdrawing support to the government when Joshi sensed their mood and called them over to his house half-an-hour before they were scheduled to meet the Governor and won them over. A day or two later, when it became clear that the Centre was reluctant to use Article 356, the independents quickly called on the Governor to extend unequivocal support to Joshi.But now, most of them feel that the Ministers of state representing the block of independents should be selected by rotation. ``On the day when the results for the assembly elections were declared, the Sena-BJP alliance was short of eight legislators to form the government. Then Ashok Dongaonkar and Babasaheb Dhabekar had taken the lead in extending the support and they were made ministers,'' a legislator pointed out.``If our demand is not accepted, we will chalkout a new strategy as we are of the firm view that the alliance government has done great injustice to us. We were completely ignored while granting new schools and appointing Special Executive Officers,'' he said. He said the independents were promised that one of them will be given a berth in the cabinet and three of them will be appointed as Chairmen of the state-run enterprises. ``Joshi did not keep the promise. On the contrary, he virtually sacked Dongaonkar,'' he remarked.According to a Shiv Sena Minister, while it was the Chief Minister's prerogative to decide on the independents' demand, the government itself was not overly dependent on their support.
