On Tuesday Shiv Sena faction leader Uddhav Thackeray met with party functionaries in Mumbai who were of the opinion that the party should fight next year’s assembly and parliamentary polls alone, after the NCP split. Some party functionaries felt that there was no point in staying with an alliance comprising NCP and Congress. However, Thackeray told them that the three parties would continue to work together. He asked his party workers to begin preparations for next year’s assembly and parliamentary polls.
Congress’ state chief Nana Patole said he had spoken with NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray, and they all agreed that the three parties should stick together and resume joint rallies throughout the state.
MVA had begun joint rallies prior to NCP split but shelved them after Congress leaders complained that Thackeray was hogging the limelight. Significantly, a section of the Maharashtra Congress views the tussle in NCP suspiciously. They are of the opinion that Sharad Pawar would eventually endorse Ajit Pawar’s decision.
For the moment, leaders of all constituents of MVA agree that contesting polls solo would be pointless and political expediency demanded that they stick together to take on the might of BJP in Maharashtra.
After his swearing in, Ajit Pawar too had underlined the importance of alliances. “The days of single party government in Maharashtra are over,” he said and added that no single party would get an absolute majority on its own and coalition governments would be the norm. Maharashtra, incidentally, has been governed by coalition governments since 1995, when the Sena-BJP government assumed power.
