Sharad Pawar’s Will To Keep Fighting Together, But Question Over MVA’s Strength Remains
Mumbai, 12th July 2022: The question remains on the future of Mahavikas Aghadi who was shocked by the rebellion of the MLAs in Shiv Sena. Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has expressed his desire to contest elections together, but the question of whether it is possible still lies in the current situation.
On the one hand, by losing the government, Shiv Sena has lost the majority in terms of MLAs. At the same time, there have been reports of displeasure with the alliance of Congress many times. Let’s understand the whole situation in detail.
The NCP chief, while interacting with reporters in Aurangabad on Sunday, said that there are no plans yet. He said, “It is my personal wish that MVA should fight all future elections together. This is yet to be discussed by the three parties. As of now, no decision has been taken in this direction.” However, no other party has reacted to the latest statement.
Shiv Sena is caught in the confusion of the current situation. Shiv Sena was at the forefront of numbers in the MVA but has suffered a big loss due to the recent rebellion. In addition, there is also a question about the leadership in the party’s alliance. Apart from this, the possibility of rebellion from the side of the remaining MPs is not being ruled out. In such a situation, it will be necessary to see what will be the new place in the alliance of Shiv Sena, which is considered different in terms of ideology. Also, the seat sharing formula is yet to be decided.
Actually, the ideology of Shiv Sena is Hindutva, but the vote of the other two parties has been secular. An example of conflict is the decision to rename Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv. There were reports that many Congress workers were not happy with the decision taken in the end.
The question of Pawar’s stature has also been raised. Pawar, who holds the record for the youngest Chief Minister of Maharashtra, is currently the senior-most in the state’s politics. He is also considered to have played an important role in making the MVA. But the Pawar factor has also been ineffective in salvaging the MVA from the rebellion of other MLAs including Eknath Shinde. Although he held several meetings and expressed confidence that the situation would improve, the government fell within two and a half years.
Apart from this, even when Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister, Pawar refrained from replying to the continuation of the alliance. On the other hand, Shiv Sena and Congress had spoken of retaining the MVA.
Along with an internal tussle in Congress and displeasure with MVA, it is also the third party in the alliance in terms of numbers. Meanwhile, there have also been reports of internal discord in the party. The latest example was seen in the Rajya Sabha elections when Maharashtra Congress General Secretary Ashish Deshmukh resigned due to the candidature of Imran Pratapgarhi. Apart from this, the party was also angry with the way the MVA worked.
Senior leaders like Balasaheb Thorat and Ashok Chavan have expressed dissatisfaction over the party’s declining stature in the alliance. He had openly claimed that Thackeray takes decisions on his own without talking to Congress. Here, state Congress chief Nana Patole has also been insisting that the party will fight alone in the 2024 assembly elections.
BMC elections will become a turning point
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections, which are considered important, are also near. Possibilities of BMC elections are being expressed to be held after the monsoon. Both the Congress and the NCP have openly expressed their willingness to contest the elections. The special thing is that the Shiv Sena has ruled the body for a long time.
NCP and Congress don’t get along
In May itself, Patole had accused the NCP of cheating. The special thing is that during that time the NCP had joined hands with the BJP in the Gondia Zilla Parishad elections. Patole had said, “Despite being in an alliance, the NCP grabbed Congress’s land in Malegaon, Bhiwandi and many other places. NCP joined hands with BJP in Gondia Zilla Parishad to elect its president. He has stabbed Congress in the back.”
Apart from this, 11 Congress MLAs including Ashok Chavan were absent during the floor test. He later explained the reason for the absence was the traffic. During that time 164 votes were cast in favour of the Shinde government. Whereas, 99 votes were on the account of the opposition. The special thing is that earlier in the election of Speaker, MVA got the support of 107 members.
NCP is the same, Congress is declining across the country. NCP had performed better than Congress in the last assembly and won 54 seats. Now Shiv Sena has also come down to 15 MLAs. In such a situation, the chances are slim that the NCP will be ready to share the seats equally. At the same time, both the other parties may also try to avoid working under Pawar’s party in the alliance.
On the other hand, Congress itself seems to be in trouble across the country. Recently, a large number of MLAs in the party’s Goa also left. Power wise, the party is in government only in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. Apart from this, it is also involved in the coalition government in Jharkhand. However, there have been reports that Congress leaders are not happy with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.
Understanding the statistics
In the year 2019, out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, BJP contested 25, Shiv Sena 23, Congress 26 and NCP 22. According to the results, the BJP won 23 seats. Whereas, Shiv Sena won 18 seats. NCP got 4 seats and Congress got one seat. In the assembly elections for 288 seats, BJP was on 105, Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44.
