Eknath Shinde had approached Cong with alliance proposal, claims Ashok Chavan

While chief minister Eknath Shinde has blamed Shiv Sena’s “unnatural alliance” with Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for his decision to walk out of the government, Congress leader Ashok Chavan’s startling claim has presented a different picture

While chief minister Eknath Shinde has blamed Shiv Sena’s “unnatural alliance” with Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for his decision to walk out of the government, Congress leader Ashok Chavan’s startling claim has presented a different picture.

Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde (HT FILE PHOTO)

Chavan, a former chief minister, has said that Shinde along with other Sena leaders had in 2017 approached him with a proposal for a three-party alliance — Sena, Congress and the NCP. Though the talks did not make any progress, it is interesting to note that Sena was then a partner in the Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

“They were insisting that we [three parties] must come together and form the government. I, however, suggested that they first speak to NCP chief Sharad Pawar to see if his party was on board,” Chavan told reporters in Nanded on Thursday, adding the meeting had taken place at his office in south Mumbai.

Meanwhile, another Congress leader said they had received a similar proposal from Sena even after the 2014 assembly elections. “A proposal had come to us. The idea was to create an equation between the three parties,” the leader, who did not wish to be named, said. However, this proposal fell through as the idea was found to be unworkable due to Sena not being in ideological consonance with the two other “secular” parties, he added.

Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, who was the chief minister from 2010 to 2014, confirmed this, but refused to elaborate on the proposal.

Reacting to the allegations, the Shinde faction’s spokesperson said Ashok Chavan was trying to discredit the reports about his estrangement from Congress by making such statements.

“There are reports that Chavan may quit Congress, and he even skipped the voting [during the Shinde government’s vote of confidence]… so, there is a cloud of suspicion about him and he is making such comments to dispel it,” Naresh Mhaske, a former Thane mayor, said.

Sena MP Vinayak Raut, who denied that he was part of the delegation to Chavan, said this purported overture by Shinde had coincided with his open disgruntlement at the BJP. Shinde, who was the public works (public undertakings) minister in the Fadnavis cabinet, had announced to quit at a public meeting held as part of the 2017 Kalyan-Dombivali civic polls campaign as he was upset with the BJP. However, he was talked out of it by Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.

The NCP could not verify Chavan’s claim but said there must be substance in it.

“The entire Maharashtra knows why the current chief minister [Shinde] has made this alliance [with the BJP],” Jayant Patil, chief of the NCP’s state unit, said.

On the other hand, Shinde’s ruling partner came out in his defence.

State BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said any overture to Congress and the NCP would have been made by Thackeray and not Shinde. “Then, Shinde was not running the affairs of Sena; it was Thackeray who was calling the shots.”

For the 2014 Assembly elections, the BJP broke its alliance with Sena and emerged as the single-largest party with 122 seats, yet short of a majority. It succeeded in forming the government after the NCP extended unsolicited outside support. Shinde became the leader of opposition. Two months later, Sena joined the government but was unhappy over the portfolio allocation. The BJP and Sena came together again for the 2019 polls, but later parted ways over chief minister’s post.