Mumbai: The Shiv Sena assured that the Maharashtra power (Pawar) equations are unique and the “Madhya Pradesh virus” will not afflict Maharashtra, here on Wednesday.
Referring to the political crisis gripping the Congress government in adjoining Madhya Pradesh, Sena MP Sanjay Raut said that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s similar operation was foiled 100 days ago in Maharashtra. “At that time, the Maha Vikas Aghadi performed a ‘bypass operation’ and saved Maharashtra. Nothing to worry even now,” Raut pointed out.
The statement was against the backdrop of the 80-hours long two-man government of the then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.
A couple of days after it collapsed as BJP was unsure of proving its majority on the floor, the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress MVA alliance government was sworn-in with Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister on November 28 last year.
NCP national Spokesperson and Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik said that the MVA is “not interested in initiating the defections game” since it has ample numbers in the Maharashtra legislature.
However, in a veiled warning, he reiterated that many legislators from Sena-NCP-Congress – who had defected to the BJP ahead of the October 2019 elections – are keen on ‘ghar-wapasi’ to their respective parties.
State Congress President and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat asserted on Tuesday evening that “the MVA government in the state is stable, and all three allies will foil any coup attempts by the BJP with complete coordination”.
Dismissing all speculation, an aide of Thackeray said that the “MVA government is functioning smoothly” and there is no cause for any worries in the wake of the Madhya Pradesh scenario.
Since Sunday, Maharashtra political circles are agog with speculation whether a similar political coup is being planned in the state around Gudi Padva, as claimed by several Opposition BJP leaders.
Currently, the MVA is comfortably ensconced with 170 legislators, BJP 105, and the remaining 13 belong to other parties in the 288-member assembly.
