NCP chief Sharad Pawar made it clear on Tuesday that there was no threat to the Shiv Sena-led MVA Government in Maharashtra thus ending speculation sparked by his meetings with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Governor Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Monday, even as his party came to the defence of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over the latter’s statement that his party was not a key decision maker in the State.
On a day when former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis charged that Rahul was shirking responsibility by distancing himself from the decision-making process of the Uddhav Thackeray Government, Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut that the MVA dispensation was “stable” and the efforts by the Opposition to “destabilise” the State Government had “boomeranged”.
“Sharad Pawar and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray met on Monday night. The meeting lasted for half an hour. Some people are spreading rumours about the stability of our Government. These rumours are just sour grapes. Our Government is stable There’s no need to worry,” Raut tweeted.
In another tweet, Raut said that the Opposition BJP was desperately trying to topple the MVA Government in the state. He said it was better that the Opposition remained in “quarantine” because its efforts to bring down the Uddhav Thackeray had boomeranged.
Pawar, who is considered the architect of the three-party government in the state, categorically stated that there was no threat to the MVA Government, that he was “committed to the alliance with the Shiv Sena and Congress and that not much should be read into his meetings with Governor Koshyari and Uddhav Thackeray on Monday.
Pawar said in his interaction with NDTV that his meeting with the Governor was a “courtesy call” and that they “did not discuss politics or Covid”, while his meeting with Uddhav was “routine” in nature. He also took a potshot at Fadnavis by saying that the former Chief Minister was “getting impatient”.
On his part, Fadnavis – at a news conference that he addressed through social media earlier in the day – charged that Rahul Gandhi through his statement that his party was not a decision maker in Maharashtra, was “shirking” his responsibility. “Given that the Coronavirus crisis is going out of control in Maharashtra, Rahul Gandhi shifting the blame on the Shiv Sena. The Congress cannot disown its responsibility and run away from the situation”.
At his news conference, Rahul Gandhi had said: “I would like to make a differentiation here. We are supporting the government in Maharashtra, but we are not the key decision maker in Maharashtra. We are decision-makers in Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Puducherry. There is a difference between running the government and supporting it,”
Rahul had also said: “Maharashtra is an important state, Mumbai is the financial capital and there is a lot of attention, they have a difficult situation and lots of attention needs to be given to the state by the centre”
Coming to the defence of Rahul Gandhi for his statement about his party’s role in the MVA government, NCP’s national spokesperson and Cabinet minister in the Uddhav Thackeray government Nawab Malik tweeted; “ Mr. @RahulGandhi is right when he said, Maharashtra does not have a Congress Government, he said so because Maharashtra has the Maha Vikas Aghadi Government. Those trying to distort his statement must stop, the 3 parties are happy together and serving the people of Maharashtra”.
The Congress and NCP leaders tore into Fadnavis for claims made at his news conference that the Narendra Modi government had given Rs 25,104 crore to the Uddhav Thackeray during the last three months, it also gave Rs 4592 crore to the state government towards providing food grains to migrant workers in the state and that it had given an assistance of Rs 438 crore to the MVA dispensation towards purchase of drugs, PPE kits and N95 masks.
Fadnavis had also claimed that the Maharashtra government would get to the tune of Rs 2,71, 500 crore because of the various packages announced by the Modi government.
In severe castigation of Fadnqavis for his claims, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said: “Fadnavis has claimed that the Maharashtra government would get to the tune of Rs 2,70,00 crore through various schemes. He gave break-ups of money that the state government would get from various schemes. By making such claims he has tried to create an impression that the entire quantum of money would go directly into the state treasury”
“Going by the assessments made by various international fiscal experts that the packagean nounced by the Centre amounted for a fiscal stimulus of mere Rs 2 lakh crore, while the remaining money will come by the way of monetary stimulus. At best Maharashtra will get to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore as against Rs 2,70,00o crore claimed by Fadnavis,” Chavan saidf.
NCP’s Nawab Malik hit out at Fadnavis by saying: “As a chief minister, all Devendra Fadnavis did was to borrow money from wherever he could. We do not need his advice. We in the MVA government are capable of managing the state’s finances. The Centre has given us Rs 28,000 crore. It is mandatory on us to spend money on specific schemes for which the money has been given.. We cannot spend the money on new schemes”