While stating he wished the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition would contest future elections in Maharashtra as a joint entity, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has acknowledged that currently, there have been no talks to this effect among the NCP, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) and the Congress to this effect.
Speaking in Aurangabad on Sunday, Mr. Pawar clarified that he had never said there would be mid-term elections in the State soon, but that he had merely exhorted his party workers to begin preparing for polls.
The NCP chief, widely perceived as the ‘architect’ of the ideologically opposed alliance of the MVA coalition, saw his work unravel after an intra-party rebellion by Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde facilitated by the BJP toppled the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA, with the result that Mr. Shinde became the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra while the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis became the new Deputy Chief Minister.
“After the MVA government’s collapse, the question arises as to what will become of the coalition. It is my wish that the MVA ought to contest future polls together. But this decision needs to be taken with due consultation among the three parties… as of now, there is nothing on this count,” Mr. Pawar said.
He further said that while nothing had happened within his party, the problem currently lay within the Sena.
“While in 2019, some people from my party tried to go that route, I did not permit them to do so,” said the NCP chief, alluding to the revolt by his nephew Ajit Pawar, who briefly joined the BJP only to be turned back by his uncle.
In 2019, soon after the conclusion of the Maharashtra Assembly elections, Ajit Pawar had startled the State with his intra-party ‘rebellion’ when he staged a coup on the morning of November 23 and was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister, with Mr. Fadnavis taking oath as Chief Minister.
After Sharad Pawar’s iron hand had prevailed and the party failed to split despite his nephew’s (Ajit Pawar) temporary defection, the latter had resigned as Deputy Chief Minister in less than 80 hours.
However, Mr. Ajit Pawar was sworn-in again as the Deputy Chief Minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA which came into being just a few days later.
