Mumbai: The BJP had egg on its face when Sena leader Anant Geete, who is also the Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Sector Enterprises, left the BJP day-long fast in the middle. It is understood that Geete left after Uddhav Thackeray called him on the phone and asked him to do so. Geete’s presence was mystifying because the Sena — in an editorial in Saamana — had attacked the BJP government over the spate of suicides by farmers and ridiculed the tit for tat hunger strikes by the Congress and the BJP.
Alarmed by the presence of its own minister at the hunger fast conclave, Sena leaders frantically tried to call party president Uddhav who is currently in Japan. It was sometime before Uddhav could get through to Geete but the latter wasted no time after getting the party diktat and made good his escape. Among those left gaping were his BJP cabinet colleagues Vijay Goel and Suresh Prabhu. When asked about his presence at the venue earlier in the day, Geete had clarified that he was representing the govt.