Pawar woos Cong to forge alliance with Sena to keep BJP out
The Maharashtra political crisis saw no prospect of an early resolution even as NCP chief Sharad Pawar met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Monday and discussed the possibility of stitching a historic NCP-Congress-Shiv Sena alliance to keep the BJP out of power in the financial hub of the country.
The Pawar-Sonia meet has not led to any breakthrough that could bring the Shiv Sena closer to the Chief Minister’s chair. Sources said while Pawar is ready for forming such an anti-BJP alliance in Maharashtra, the Congress was divided on joining hands with the Sena fearing it could dent the party’s secular credentials.
In the meeting that lasted over half an hour, sources said the two leaders discussed the possibilities of forming an alternative government and support the Shiv Sena in case “it decides to move out of its alliance” with the BJP.
“We decided to meet again.The mood of the people is against the BJP, not favourable to the BJP,” Pawar told reporters.
Reiterating that people have given them a mandate to sit in Opposition, Pawar said he briefed Sonia on the political situation in Maharashtra. However, he said, “We have not discussed exactly about the formation of Government.”
According to sources, both side, however, sought to explore the scenario if Sena choses to “walk out of the alliance”. This could mean Sena withdrawing its Minister from the NDA Government at the Centre.
At the same time, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday met party president Amit Shah and said there was need to form a Government in the State.
“There is need to form the Government in Maharashtra at the earliest. I am sure, I am confident that the Government will be formed,” Fadnavis told reporters after the meeting.
He later met BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, who was in charge of elections in Maharashtra.
The BJP-Sena stand-off appears to be reaching a climax with the Shiv Sena pressuring its senior ally for 50-50 power-sharing and the NCP looking at possible opening in the power game and play a role as a kingmaker.
The NCP with 54 and the Congress with 44 seats in 288-strong Maharashtra Assembly have the clout to install a Government, backing either of the two warring allies in the State.
Meanwhile, a Shiv Sena delegation comprising party spokesperson Sanjay Raut and party leader Ramdas Kadam met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, discussed the current political situation.
Talking to the media, Raut said, “We have urged the Governor to expedite the process of formation of a new Government in the State. We have told him clearly that we will not create any impediments in the formation of a new Government in the State.”
Expressing his view of the Governor, Raut said, “It has been a tradition in Maharashtra that the Governor has over the years acted very much under the ambit of Constitution. The Governor does not belong to any political party. He takes a neutral stand. From what I understood after speaking to him, after many years Maharashtra has got a very experienced person as a Governor who has good understanding of the country, politics and law.”
The strategy behind the Shiv Sena meeting the Governor is to ensure that if the BJP did not come forward to stake a claim to form the Government, the latter should invite outgoing Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who has been re-elected as the BJP’s Legislature Party leader, to form the Government.
Given that the BJP has not initiated talks with the Shiv Sena for formation of a Government in the State, it is quite likely that Fadnavis may try to form the Government without the support of the Shiv Sena in the hope that he would muster numbers during the course of time, somehow prove his majority.
The BJP, which won 105 seats, has claimed that together with 15 Independents or smaller party MLAs, it has a total strength of 120 MLAs.
In essence, the BJP needs 25 MLAs to touch the simple majority mark of 145 in the State Assembly polls.
On its part, the Shiv Sena is hoping that the BJP will fail in its attempt to prove its majority on the floor of the House. If the BJP fails in its attempt to form a government, the Governor will then have no option but to ask the Shiv Sena , which has a strength of 63 MLAs ( 56 MLAs of its own plus seven Independent MLAs whose support it enjoys) to form a government with its allies.
Meanwhile, on a day when the Central leaderships of the Congress and NCP decided to adopt a “wait and watch” approach in matters relating to emerging political situation in Maharashtra, State NCP President Jayant Patil said that a Shiv Sena-led Government would be formed in the State.
Responding to questions posed in the context of an interesting SMS greeting “Namaskar, Jai Maharashtra, Me Sanjay Raut” that Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut had sent to senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar on Sunday, Patil said indicated that the NCP-Congress alliance might support a Shiv Sena Government in the State.
That there is considerable camaraderie between the NCP and Shiv Sena could be gauged from Patil’s statement that if the BJP tries to poach MLAs from the Shiv Sena leading to the by-elections in the State, his party (NCP) would support the Sena candidates in the bye-election and ensure their victory in the elections.
The poaching in the current political parlance means the desirous party approaches the MLA(s) concerned and asks them to quit their parent party, join the desirous party and contest the by-polls on the tickets given by the new party.
Sources in the NCP said that Patil had spoken about the possible efforts of poaching of Sena MLAs by the BJP to increase its numbers in the Assembly in the near future, to prevent the single largest party from making attempts to engineer such large-scale switch-overs from the Sena to its fold.