Virtually leaving no breathing room for Opposition parties in Maharashtra, veteran politician and Nationalist Congress party supremo Sharad Pawar on Monday suggested that the desire among constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi to work together may not be sufficient to keep them together.
“Desire alone is not always enough,” Pawar said, citing the willingness within the Maha Vikas Aghadi to work together. “The allotment of seats, whether there are any problems or not- all this has not been discussed yet,” he added.
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“So how can I tell you about this?” he said, responding to a question on whether MVA constituents — the Shiv Sena(UBT), the Congress and the NCP will contest the Maharashtra Assembly elections scheduled next year together.
The remarks come amid a buzz around Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar possibly considering a crossover to the Bharatiya Janata Party, taking along a sizeable chunk of NCP MLAs along with him. While Ajit Pawar continues to deny all such assertions, the buzz around his switch looms large days before a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court pronounces its verdict on the disqualification plea of 16 Shiv Sena legislators who rebelled alongside incumbent Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
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Referring to the possibility of Ajit Pawar causing a split in the party he founded, Sharad Pawar warned of strong action against any such attempt. “Tomorrow if anyone is attempting to break the party (NCP) then it is their strategy. If we have to take any stand, then we have to do it firmly,” he said, speaking to reporters on Sunday.
Pawar, however, refused to get into the details when asked to comment on the alleged attempts to woo Ajit Pawar from the NCP if the top court decides in favour of the disqualification of the 16 rebel Sena MLAs, including CM Shinde. While the disqualification of the 16 rebel MLAs would not immediately put the BJP-Shinde government in minority, the matter could snowball if the decision applies to other rebel MLAs as well.
In such a scenario, the BJP may want to woo the NCP and experts are not entirely ruling out the possibility of senior Pawar considering breaking ranks with the Opposition and joining hands with the BJP to get a taste of power in government.
The worry for the Opposition is that while 40 of the 55 Shiv Sena MLAs rebelled with Shinde and voted in favour of the trust vote, an equal number among the 53 NCP legislators in the Maharashtra Assembly are believed to be in touch with Ajit Pawar.
Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has tried to put up a brave face following Pawar’s remarks. “Maha Vikas Aghadi will remain. Its prominent leaders are Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar. In 2024, MVA parties will fight (Maharashtra Assembly) election together,” Sanjay Raut, Uddhav Thackeray faction leader and Rajya Sabha MP, said on Monday.