The Shiv Sena on Monday indicated that it would soon walk out of the Devendra Fadnavis-led saffron alliance Government in Maharashtra in view of what it called “growing dissatisfaction” among the people in the State and the country about the rising prices of essential commodities, diesel and petrol, the continued agrarian crisis and its own inability to address the grievances of the people.
“We have come close to taking a decision whether or not to continue in this Government,” Shiv Sena spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut said, after a meeting that Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had with his party’s Ministers, MlAs and MPs at his Bandra residence “Matoshri”.
At a meeting called to assess the performance of the Sena’s Ministers, MlAs and MPS, the elected representatives expressed their resentment towards the Fadnavis dispensation, saying that despite their being part of the BJP-led Government, they were unable to address the issues of the people.
The Sena’s elected representatives complained to Uddhav that they were in no position to do any development work in their constituency because of lack of funds. “We do not have much of power to do anything in this Government,” the Ministers cribbed.
After hearing out his party’s elected representatives, the Sena president asked them as to what do next. All of them requested Uddhav to take a call on whether or not to continue to be part of the BJP-led Government in the State and at the Centre.
Interacting with media persons after putting out a series of tweets saying that the Sena did not want to responsibility for the miseries like increase in the price of essential commodities, petrol and diesel, Raut said, “The Sena has come closer to taking a decision.... Uddhavji has heard all of us out. Wait and watch as to what will happen next”.
Giving details of what transpired at the meeting, Raut said, “At the party meeting, Uddhavji addressed all of us and elicited the views on the current situation in the State and the country... The manner in which prices of essential commodities and diesel and patrol have gone up has destroyed the lives of the people in the State and across the country. The Government has also not found a solution to the farmers’ loan waiver. There is both disappointment and resentment in the minds of the people. The people are angry with the Government”.
“We accept that we are part of this Government but this Government is not ours. The Government is fully in the hands of the BJP. As a result people are also unhappy with us. The people were expecting us to do something but we are unable to do anyting. All the MlAs and MPs have expressed our views at the meeting. All of us have told the party president to take a decision in this regard,” Raut said.
Raut said that the people were wondering as to why the Sena continued to be part of the BJP-led Government.
Meanwhile, informed party sources said that a section of the party MlAs opposed the move to quit the BJP-led saffron alliance Government at this stage. Some MlAs said that if mid-term polls were to be held in the immediate future, they had no money to fight the elections.
This is not for the first time that the Sena has threatened to quit the BJP-led alliance Government. On many occasions, the Sena had held out such threats to the ruling BJP.
Despite being part of the Governments in the State and at the Centre, the Sena has never lost an opportunity to castigate the BJP-led NDA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Maharashtra Government on various issue of public importance, including the demonetisation. By doing so, the Sena has tried to occupy the space of Opposition even while being in the Government. The objective behind this exercise is that the Sena does not want to be saddled by the strains of the anti-incumbency faced by the Modi Government which has come under flak from various quarters over demonetisation and other issues like the farmers’ distress.
The Sena had handed out similar threat to the BJP-led Government in the State ahead of the municipal corporations in January/February this year. Subsequently, the Sena reneged on its threat by saying that by quitting the Government, it did not want to contribute to “political and economic instability” in the State.
On his part, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP had in June this year called the Sena’s bluff, by indirectly daring his party’s ally to withdraw its support to his government and saying that his party was prepared for the mid-term polls. Uddhav sought to wriggle out of the situation by accusing Fadnavis of plans to advance the polls just to avoid farm loan waiver.