Mumbai: There is never a dull moment in Maharashtra politics. After the general election results, soon began the blame games, discontent and infighting.
After the disastrous political show in the election, all three parties in the Mahayuti – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena – have begun pointing fingers at each other. The conversations on the Mahavikas Aghadi front – comprising Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar’s NCP and the Congress – are not looking very positive either.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The Ajit-led NCP turned down the BJP’s offer to accommodate party leader Praful Patel as a minister of state (MoS) with independent charge in the new National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Patel, speaking to the media, said he has been a Union minister in the past and taking a state MoS charge is a “demotion” of sorts for a leader as senior as him. This is not the first time that the NCP has spoken up against the BJP since the election results. In fact, Ajit skipped the first meeting of the NDA allies that happened in Delhi a day after the results were announced on June 4.
Of the four seats that the party contested, Ajit’s NCP could secure only one. On the other hand, the Sharad Pawar-led faction put up a strong fight, winning eight out of the ten seats the party had contested. Responding to the poor show of his party, Ajit blamed the BJP for not working enough for his party candidates, especially his wife Sunetra Pawar, who contested from Baramati against Supriya Sule and lost by over 1.5 lakh votes. Evaluating the results, Ajit also claimed that the party’s electoral base shook because of some BJP leaders’ claims that the Constitution would be altered once the party comes to power.
On the 25th foundation year celebration of the NCP, the Sharad front had organised a celebratory event in Ahmednagar, one of the party’s strongholds. At the event, Rohit Pawar, an elected MLA from the NCP (SP) and Sharad’s grandnephew, openly took a swipe at the state party chief Jayant Patil. The NCP (SP) put up a solid show in the general election, winning eight out of the ten seats that the party had contested. Soon after the results, as part of the jubilation, many posters were propped up referring to Patil as the “general” who led the party to victory.
Rohit, in a speech he called a “frank” sharing of his views, said no “general” led to the party’s victory and that it was the party workers who should be hailed for the results. Rohit also focused on senior Pawar’s age and said it is his efforts and leadership that kept the party going. Within the party, the brewing discontent between Rohit and Patil is well known, and it is claimed that the former has been seeking a prominent position in the party. At the same event, Patil responded, saying that if anyone has any grievances against him, they should directly speak to Sharad or come to him.
The Eknath Shinde-led Sena too has expressed their displeasure over the BJP’s decision to offer its MP only an MoS role. “We were expecting a Cabinet berth,” the party’s chief whip, Shrirang Barne, said. Barne referred to other NDA allies and the cabinet berths offered to them even when they had fewer MPs elected in this parliamentary election. Shinde’s Sena has seven MPs out of the 15 seats it contested. Barne claimed the party did better than the BJP in the state, considering the latter contested in 28 seats and won only nine.
The Sena later tried to play down Barne’s claim by issuing a statement that read: “We have already made it clear that we are supporting the government unconditionally. This nation has asked for and needs the leadership of Prime Minister Modi ji. There’s no bargaining or negotiation for power. We have extended unconditional support to an ideological coalition.”
Differences are reported to have erupted even between the Congress party and Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena, which has otherwise worked harmoniously since the inception of the Mahavikas Aghadi in 2020. In the upcoming state legislative council’s graduate and teacher constituency elections, the Congress had hoped to contest two seats (Konkan and Nashik), and expected Sena to contest the other two. But Thackeray announced that his party would contest all four, and according to Patole, the decision was taken without consulting the Congress. “We tried to contact Uddhav Thackeray, but he was abroad and couldn’t be reached. We tried to connect at Matoshree, but we were not able to connect as well,” Patole claimed.
