Uddhav Thackeray quashes speculation of BJP patch-up

The BJP and the Shiv Sena have been allies since 1995, but latter formed the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government in 2019 with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress.

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday dismissed the speculation that the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would renew their alliance and slammed Opposition legislators for boycotting the last day of the monsoon session of the Assembly in the midst of a pandemic.

The CM criticised the BJP legislators’ behaviour on Monday which led to the suspension of 12 Opposition leaders, including former ministers Ashish Shelar, Sanjay Kute, Girish Mahajan, and Jaykumar Rawal. (File photo)

“There is no possibility of anything happening which did not happen in 30 years,” Thackeray told reporters after the two-day session drew to a close.

The BJP and the Sena have been allies since 1995, but latter formed the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government in 2019 with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress. Thackeray walked out of the alliance even though the saffron combine won a majority that would have allowed them to form the government, after the BJP rejected Sena’s demand to share the CM post over half a tenure each.

Recent meetings between leaders of both parties however, fuelled speculation over a shift in the political equation between the former allies. BJP leader and former CM Devendra Fadnavis’s meetings with BJP’s top leadership, especially with Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi last week, led a section of BJP leaders to speculate on the longevity of the state government. On Sunday, Fadnavis also said that Sena and BJP may have differences of opinion but they were not enemies.

“Ours is a formidable combine and I am sitting between Congress and NCP,” Thackeray said referring to revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on his left respectively. “There is no question slipping out of this,” Thackeray said.

The CM criticised the BJP legislators’ behaviour on Monday which led to the suspension of 12 Opposition leaders, including former ministers Ashish Shelar, Sanjay Kute, Girish Mahajan, and Jaykumar Rawal.

They were suspended for a year for misbehaving with the presiding officer Bhaskar Jadhav during a heated debate on the issue of obtaining caste census data from the Centre. Jadhav said the legislators had hurled abuses at him, and added on Tuesday that he had received threats on social media for his action.

Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil said that the party was considering moving court to challenge the suspension.

BJP legislators protested the suspension and boycotted the Assembly on Tuesday. They held a mock session outside the Vidhan Sabha building prompting security personnel to put an end to the protest. The legislators however continued the mock assembly in the press room.

The incident occurred during a debate on the resolution moved by the state government on July 5 to seek empirical data from the Centre in order to restore reservation granted to members of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) which stands to be abolished following a recent Supreme Court order. There is a 27% reservation in local self-government body elections for this category. The BJP opposed the resolution and as the discussions became heated, Opposition legislators approached Jadhav’s seat and tried to snatch the microphone and remove the mace on the table.

“What was the need for the BJP to create a hue and cry over a resolution asking the Centre to provide census data of 2011 to enable the State Backward Class Commission to prepare empirical data of OBCs? Even if you feel the resolution wouldn’t yield anything, couldn’t you still support it?” Thackeray said.

“The action taken against the BJP legislators was for their shameful and unprecedented behaviour. If they are calling it black chapter in democracy, what they are doing by using the Central agencies against us? (…) Is using Central agencies like CBI and ED a sign of a healthy democracy? If the priority is to grab power at any cost instead of providing relief to the people battling the Covid pandemic, then it’s a really sad state of affairs,” Thackeray added.

MVA leaders have accused the BJP-led Centre of attempting to “destabilize” the state government through central probe agencies. Former state home minister Anil Deshmukh is under investigation for his alleged role in an extortion racket and a purported cash-for-transfer scam involving police officials based on allegations by former Mumbai police commissioner, Parambir Singh, while relatives of the deputy chief minister are also under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Shiv Sena legislator Pratap Sarnaik is also under probe for alleged money laundering.

“Yes, Uddhav Thackeray is right, what happened in the lower house on Monday was unprecedented. We have never seen an action against legislators like this before. The suspension came from a presiding officer, and not from the deputy speaker Narahari Zirwal (who is acting as Speaker). The action was taken on false charges. As far as Thackeray’s allegations about the so-called misuse (of power) is concerned, they should understand that the probe by the Central agencies is being conducted on the complaints of the police officers (Param Bir Singh and Sachin Vaze) in state government service,” Maharashtra BJP’s vice president Madhav Bhandari said.

Bhandari said that there was no substance in the reports of any alliance between the two parties. “These are all speculations floated by the Sena,” he said.