Sena denies reports of sole Muslim Minister quitting Thackeray government

Mumbai : Amid speculation that the Shiv Sena''s newly-inducted Minister of State Abdul Sattar Nabi has threatened to quit from the government, the party and his family stoutly denied the reports, here on Saturday.

"This is not correct. He has not resigned, nor submitted any such resignation letter to me or anybody else in the party," Sena Rajya Sabha MP Anil Desai told IANS, dismissing it as acemedia imagination".

Speaking to local media, the MoS'' son Samir Nabi in Aurangabad also denied the news and said he was trying to reach his father for more details.

The sole Muslim face of Sena and among four Muslims in the cabinet, Sattar, a legislator from Sillod (Aurangabad) was sworn-in as a MoS when Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray expanded his cabinet on December 30.

Since the past one week, the top leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance of Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress are engaged in finalising the cabinet portfolios.

Abdul Sattar, said that he would speak after meeting Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. "I will meet Shiv Sena president and chief minister Thackeray in Mumbai tomorrow and then I will speak," Sattar told reporters here on Saturday evening when asked if he had resigned.

Sena leader Khotkar met Sattar earlier in the day. "Sattar had a word with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and (senior Sena leader) Eknath Shinde. Thackeray has called him to Mumbai on Sunday.

The CM will meet Sattar at Matoshri (the Thackeray residence) at 12.30 pm," Khotkar said. Sattar quit the Congress before the Assembly elections last year and joined the Shiv Sena.

He was made a minister of state in the Shiv Sena-NCP- Congress coalition government.