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Maha drama not yet over, say all parties
Stressing that the BJP-led dispensation would not pass a floor test, he asserted that the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine has the numbers and will form the government in Maharashtra.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday termed his nephew Ajit Pawar’s decision to ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) an act of indiscipline, and said Ajit and other legislators of the party who switched sides will attract provisions of the anti-defection law.
Stressing that the BJP-led dispensation would not pass a floor test, he asserted that the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine has the numbers and will form the government in Maharashtra.
Sharad Pawar addressed a press conference with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray after Fadnavis took oath as the Maharashtra chief minister on Saturday morning. Ajit Pawar, who allied with the BJP, was sworn in as the deputy CM.
The MLAs who have defected stand to lose the membership of the assembly, and when by-elections are held, the Congress-NCP-Sena alliance will ensure that they are defeated, said Sharad Pawar.
He said he was not aware if his nephew decided to support the BJP out of the fear of the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Ajit Pawar is among those named in the multi-crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) scam case.
He also rejected the speculation that Ajit Pawar’s defiance was the result of power struggle with Sharad Pawar’s daughter and member of Parliament Supriya Sule, over the post of chief minister. “Supriya is not interested in state politics. She is a Member of Parliament and more keen on national politics,” the NCP chief said.
Pawar said of the number of NCP MLAs, who were present with Ajit Pawar at Raj Bhavan, some have returned to the party and more were on the way.
Rajendra Shingne from Buldhana and Sandeep Kshirsagar from Beed, who were present at the press conference, said they got a call from Ajit Pawar, asking them to come to party leader Dhananjay Munde’s residence at 7 AM. They were then taken to Raj Bhavan, the two MLAs said.
“All this happened because of some misunderstanding since Ajit Pawar had called us,” Shingne said.
Sharad Pawar reiterated that the “Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena have the numbers and we will form the government. We are together and are capable of tackling such obstacles.”
At the press conference, Uddhav Thackeray hit out at the BJP for accusing the Shiv Sena of disrespecting the people’s mandate. His party was in a pre-poll alliance with the BJP, but initiated talks with the Opposition camp after differences surfaced over power-sharing.
“Whatever Shiv Sena does, is out in the front, done openly. Our politics is not ‘ratris khel chale (The Game Goes on at Night’),” he said, referring to the title of a popular Marathi horror TV serial.
“This [Fadnavis’s swearing-in] is a surgical strike on the people of Maharashtra and they would avenge it,” he said.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar hit back. He said the “khichdi” (hotchpotch) being cooked (by the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) was against the people’s mandate. “People had voted for BJP alliance. Shiv Sena betrayed people & peoples’ mandate & decided to go with the Congress, which opposed Ram Mandir & Veer Savarkar; Shiv Sena was happy to go with the Congress, which is synonymous to corruption & had imposed emergency,” he said in a tweet.
