Uddhav displays camaraderie with allies since fall of MVA regime

Appearing publicly with his allies for the first time since he stepped down as chief minister two months ago, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday sent out a strong message to the Devendra Fadnavis-Eknath Shinde government that the three constituents of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) are together come what may

Appearing publicly with his allies for the first time since he stepped down as chief minister two months ago, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday sent out a strong message to the Devendra Fadnavis-Eknath Shinde government that the three constituents of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) are together come what may.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray arrives at Vidhan Bhavan on Tuesday Satish Bate/HT Photo

The efforts by Sharad Pawar started bearing fruits as leaders from the three parties — Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress — held a closed-door meeting at Vidhan Bhavan to devise the opposition strategy. They also agreed to contest the local body elections in alliance, wherever possible.

“The MVA is united, and we are not divided,” Thackeray said.

“I was concerned about a split in Congress and the NCP but it happened to me and I could not realise what was coming. But the leadership of both the parties [Congress and the NCP] stood by me. If we continue in the coalition then we can defeat them,” the Sena chief reportedly said in the meeting.

By coming to Vidhan Bhavan only for the meeting, Thackeray made it clear that he is not going to move out of the MVA at least for now.

State NCP chief Jayant Patil said their coalition would emerge victorious if they stayed united for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. “We can send a positive message before Maharashtra if we remain united even in Mumbai,” Patil reportedly said.

Later, Thackeray told reporters: “The ongoing crisis [split in Sena] is nothing compared to the crisis we faced being part of the MVA government. The pandemic was spread across the world but our government ensured good health facilities to the people in those difficult times.”

Thackeray also said that he is going to start a state-wide tour after the Ganesh festival. When asked about alliance in the BMC polls, he said, “We will talk about it when a decision is taken.”

It was the first meeting after the fall of the Thackery-led MVA government on June 30.

Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said all the three constituents of the MVA agreed to work together as a united opposition. “We have not met since the fall of the MVA government. It was our first meeting. We have decided to work unitedly and will wait for the Supreme Court verdict as we believe it will come in our favour.”

Soon after Nitish Kumar snapped ties with the BJP in Bihar and formed the government with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress, the NCP chief conveyed the need for a united opposition to the Sena leadership. On August 10, NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal and Sunil Tatkare met Thackeray and tried to convince him to remain part of the MVA.