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Updated: Jun 06, 2019 12:35 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Maharashtra ally the Shiv Sena, which has 18 members in the Lok Sabha, has said that they were the natural claimants to the deputy Speaker’s post in the lower House.

“This (deputy Speaker post) is not our demand, it is our natural claim and right, this post must be given to Shiv Sena,” party leader Sanjay Raut said, according to ANI.

Shiv Sena, which shares power with BJP in Maharashtra too, has been given one berth in the recently-constituted Cabinet led by PM Modi and some reports suggest that the party is also unhappy with the portfolio of Heavy Industry and Public enterprise allocated to Arvind Ganpat Sawant.

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, the Sena had been taking on the BJP over various issues – from Ayodhya to farm distress to inflation. But the two seemed to have called a truce during the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections.