Mumbai: Party ideologies and differences have never been this blurry in the history of Maharashtra politics. Every permutation and combination is presently being employed to keep the Bhartiya Janata Party out of the game in the state.
Soon after the second largest party Shiv Sena ditched long-time ally BJP and decided to go with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress in the state, the political drama intensified even more.
The NCP had already shown its keenness in going with the Sena days after the election results were out on October 24. The Congress, however, remained non-committal till the last moment and at 7.30 pm on November 11, the Sena failed to form the government when the state governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari failed to give the part further extensions.
The Congress issued a statement in the evening saying it would hold further discussions with its pre-poll ally NCP and decide on a course of action.
The statement released by the Congress late evening.
Sena leaders, including newly-elected MLA Aaditya Thackeray and senior leader Eknath Shinde, had met the governor in the evening and sought an extension to be able to work out the new equations with the Congress and the NCP.
However, the governor expressed his inability to give them further time and instead called the NCP to show its interest to form the government. The party leaders met and the party will have to prove its ability to form a government in the state by 8.30 pm on November 12, NCP leader Jayant Patil told the media in Mumbai.
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Soon after the BJP knew it did not have the expected support from the Sena and was falling short of the halfway mark, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told the state governor last week that the part would not be able to form the government. On November 10, the governor had sent an invite to the Sena to show its interest in forming the government since it is the second largest party with its 56 seats.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar first met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and the details of the alliance were the worked out. Since October 24, Pawar had kept the media guessing. He had earlier claimed that his party, along with the Congress, had accepted the voters’ mandate and would continue in the opposition.
However, when it became clear that the Sena won’t be moving ahead with the BJP anymore, Pawar offered to support Sena – provided the party’s Member of Parliament Arvind Sawant, the sole member in prime minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet resigned.
Earlier today, Sawant offered his resignation.
The attention then moved to the Congress and the party called for the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting twice in a matter of few hours. In both meetings, presided by the party’s working president Sonia Gandhi, the issues with the coalition was discussed. According to well-placed sources in the party, Gandhi and several other party leaders have been reluctant in allowing this arrangement to go through.
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“One, the party has a very different ideology from that of the Sena. Second, our voters vote for us to ensure we are able to bring in an alternative to the Hindutva politics in this country. So, we have been worried of the repercussions that the party would have to face should we decide to go with the Sena. But keeping the BJP is also important,” a senior Congress MLA told The Wire hours before the Congress finally announced its support.
Over 40 Congress MLAs have been lodged at a hotel in Jaipur since November 9 fearing possible attempts of poaching. These MLAs, according to senior party leaders have shown interest in going with the Sena. However, several party leaders including Sanjay Nirupam have publicly expressed their dismay and have called such a move ‘political suicide’.
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Although the Congress has remained non-committal at the moment, its very decision to hold conversations with the Sena shows it is not averse to being with a party that is ideologically opposite of it. Both the Congress and Sena have been at loggerheads in the state and have always been critical of each other. However, today, in a desperate moment to form a government, the Congress showed willingness to hold talks.
November 11 was the last day for the formation of government in the state. The governor, when parties fail to form government, could impose president’s rule in the state. However, that possibility has been stalled for the moment and the NCP has time till 8.30 pm on November 12 to work out whether it can lay stake and form the government.
Whether Thackeray’s Sena will continue to be the primary player in this new equation is still unknown.