Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will be able to handle the “internal issue” of the Shiv Sena, said NCP supremo Sharad Pawar amid minister Eknath Shinde’s revolt along with 25 other MLAs that seems to have caused a wobble in the Maharashtra government.
Ruled by the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition comprising Sena, NCP and Congress, the state government seems to be in crisis mode. But, Pawar, said he was confident that Thackeray will be able to resolve the issues, and that he will be meeting the chief minister later in the day.
“There are no differences in the alliance and all have full confidence in the leadership of Thackeray,” he said, adding, “this is not an internal issue of the NCP. It is an internal issue of Shiv Sena, they (Sena) will inform us after assessing the situation.”
The NCP chief alleged that this was the “third attempt to pull down the MVA government”. Back in 2019, Pawar had played a crucial role in the formation of the coalition government. He said the government will complete its full five-year term and ruled out going with the BJP, in case the state government fell.
Pawar further said he will be leaving for Mumbai soon after the opposition meeting on the joint presidential candidate. He, however, reiterated that it is the Sena’s internal issue and whatever the party decides, “we’ll be with them”.
Pawar also said Shinde’s revolt had nothing to do with the ruling coalition as it was the Sena’s decision if the minister will be made the chief minister. “I am here (in Delhi) since yesterday (Monday, June 20) to discuss the presidential candidate,” he added.
Pawar made a veiled comment about the issue, but said he had not spoken to anyone about it. “All MLAs of the NCP voted for us… it was the responsibility of other political parties and they failed in getting the votes of their MLAs. I am confident that we’ll find a way out of this,” he added.
Trouble began when urban development minister Shinde and 25 other Sena MLAs went incommunicado and camped in Surat, a day after suspected cross-voting in the MLC polls. Shinde is yet to spell out his stand, but state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil said the saffron party was not could not be linked to any of these developments.
He, however, claimed that Shinde was camping with 35 other MLAs and not 25 as it is being reported. He also said the BJP will “definitely consider” a proposal from Shinde to form a government.
Pawar said, “What happened in Maharashtra, in the past two and two-and-a-half years, this is the third incident. I remember when the Uddhav Thackeray government was being formed, some of our MLAs were kept in Haryana. But later, they came out of there and returned, forming the government,” adding, “after government formation, in the two-and-a-half years, it was working fine. Yesterday, there was a (legislative council) election. As far as NCP is concerned… not even a single vote of the NCP went elsewhere.”
He said a candidate of the front could not win due to a shortfall in votes, and that it was the duty of the other political party to ensure the victory of their candidate. The NCP chief further said cross-voting happened in such elections and there was nothing new in it. He added that the matter will be discussed as to why such a thing happened and what corrective action can be taken.
(With PTI inputs)
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