Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 14: Amidst speculations that Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) and the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) factions may have soften their attitude towards the BJP after drubbing in the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections, strong remarks against the leaders of the two parties by the union home minister Amit Shah may have reversed the political situation in the state.
Pouring cold water on speculation that his party has softened its stance towards the BJP, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar has hit out at Amit Shah and accused him of not maintaining the decorum of the Home Minister’s post. He also dismissed the speculations of his party going any closure to the BJP and said, “Not even a single MP of my party wants to go with BJP.” His statement came almost at the same time an editorial in Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamana described Amit Shah’s recent remarks on Mr Thackeray as “language of arrogance.”
In a recent BJP rally in Shirdi, Mr Shah had said the people of Maharashtra taught a lesson to Uddhav Thackeray for his “betrayal politics.” He had also told about Mr Sharad Pawar that the BJP’s thumping victory in the Maharashtra Assembly elections had ended the politics of “treachery and betrayal” started by him in 1978.
Mr Shah’s attack, seen as a reference to Mr Pawar walking out of the then Vasantdada Patil-led government in Maharashtra in 1978 with 40 MLAs and then becoming the chief minister. Hitting back on Tuesday, Mr Pawar said, “I was the chief minister in 1978. I am not aware of his (Amit Shah’s) whereabouts then. When I was the chief minister, there were people like Uttamrao Patil from (BJP’s predecessor) Jana Sangh in my ministry.”
Pointing out that there used to be good communication between political leaders earlier and that then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had made him the vice-chairman of the Disaster Management Authority after the Bhuj earthquake in 2001 despite him being in the opposition, the NCP (SP) chief said the decorum of the post of Home Minister should be maintained.
“There used to be ‘susamvaad’ (good communication) between political leaders earlier, but that is missing now,” he said. In his speech at the BJP convention in Shirdi, Mr Shah had said, “The victory of BJP in Maharashtra ended the politics of instability and backstabbing started by Sharad Pawar in 1978. You (BJP workers) have buried such politics 20 feet in the ground.”
“From 1978 till 2024, Maharashtra was prone to political instability. You have shown the way by bringing in a stable and strong Devendra Fadnavis government,” he added. In the Maharashtra elections, held in November last year, the BJP had won 132 of the state’s 288 seats and its Mahayuti allies, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, had bagged 57 and 41, respectively.
The opposition alliance, the Maha Vikas Aghadi – consisting of the Congress, Udhhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP) – was routed, winning just 46 seats in all. With just 10 constituencies, Sharad Pawar’s party had finished at the bottom of the table in the alliance.
On the Opposition INDIA Bloc front, Mr Pawar like the Sena (UBT) has also decided to go alone in the local elections and supported the stand of several other member parties that the united bloc was meant only for the national elections. The statement holds significance as it echoed the statement of Sanjay Raut of Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) who recently said that the INDIA bloc and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliances – comprising Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP (SP) – were only meant for Lok Sabha and assembly elections.
Sharad Pawar said, “There has never been any talk regarding state and local elections in the INDIA alliance,” adding in the same breath, “Everyone will meet and decide on this (local body elections) in the next 10 days.” Earlier in the day, Mr Raut, while saying that it was difficult to form an alliance in the local body elections, expressed confidence in the survival of the INDIA bloc and called on Congress as the “larger partner” in the alliance, to take responsibility for maintaining unity among the opposition parties.
“In Delhi, the Congress and AAP think that they are big powers… In Maharashtra also we have said the local body elections are of the workers. It is difficult to form an alliance there, but our alliance will be intact in Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha (Maharashtra). Being the bigger party in the alliance, it is the responsibility of Congress to keep us together,” Mr Raut added.
He also said there was nothing wrong in contesting elections against allies and cited the example of the Delhi assembly elections where the AAP and Congress are competing against each other.
When Sharad Pawar was asked about the AAP vs Congress contest in Delhi, he said the “INDIA bloc was meant only for national elections”. “Delhi is (Arvind) Kejriwal’s base. The people of Delhi have given the majority to his party twice in the elections and that is why it would have been good if we could have done something by taking them into confidence,” he added.
Earlier, NCP (SP) working president and Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule said the parties always contested local bodies solo. “Local bodies’ elections are of the party workers. If we contest these polls as per our convenience what should the cadre do; only lift mattresses of leaders?” she asked.
The Congress, meanwhile, has said the party’s central leadership would decide on whether it would contest solo or otherwise in the local body polls, the schedule of which is yet to be declared.
