Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 8: Ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections where the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra is fighting hard to keep its flock together, fresh rumbling has also started among the coalition partners over the chief minister’s post threatening the longevity of the Shiv Sena-led government.
The rumbling was started soon after the MVA government with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister completed two and half years in the office earlier this week when the Nationalist Congress Party minister Dhananjay Munde declared that the “next” chief minister would be from the NCP, leaving its third and the junior most partner the Congress fuming.
Munde did not clarify what he meant by “next CM” and if the hint was for the remaining term of the existing Assembly or after the next elections. That was what the NCP Member of Parliament and NCP Supremo Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule attempted to convey. In her reaction on Munde’s remarks, Sule said, “It’s not new. Every party feels they should have their CM.” The NCP is trying hard to expand its base and clinch at least 100 seats in the next elections but while Sule may be stating the obvious, the curious issue was the riming of Munde’s remarks coming just after the MVA government completing half its term.
It was on the same issue that the long-term alliance between the BJP and the Shiv Sena fell apart this time. In the October, 2019 elections to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the incumbent BJP had emerged as the single largest party winning 105 seats and its then ally Sena getting 56 seats, while the NCP secured 54 seats and the Congress got 44. The ruling alliance between the BJP and the Sena collapsed over the latter’s demand for an equal share in power in the form of a rotational two-and-a-half-year CM tenure which was not acceptable to the BJP.
The collapse of the ruling alliance paved the way for the formation of the three-party MVA government after several days of high drama with the NCP chief Sharad Pawar playing the most important role in bringing the three diametrically opposite parties together and stich a bonding despite repeated churnings within the coalition every now and then. But one of the unwritten understanding was believed to be that both the NCP and the Congress then had agreed that they would allow the Sena to keep the CM’s office for the full term.
Conceding the top post to the Sena, the NCP and the Congress tried to extract other benefits for their respective parties. While the NCP cornered the largest share in the ministry by securing 12 cabinet and 4 minister of state (MoS) berths, the Sena bagged 10 cabinet and 4 MoS positions while the Congress got 10 cabinet and 2 MoS posts. The NCP also struck a hard bargain to clinch portfolios like home and finance.
From the very beginning, the Sena stuck to the line that Thackeray would remain the CM for the entire term of five years, with party leader Sanjay Raut maintaining that “there is no question of any change in the CM’s post. Uddhav Thackeray is here to stay for entire term and beyond.” With NCP chief Pawar monitoring every development relating to the MVA closely, no one within his party has challenged the Sena’s claim in this regard officially so far. Bottom of Form
A day after Munde’s pitch for the NCP CM, home minister Dilip Walse Patil, a senior NCP leader, said, “Uddhav Thackeray will remain CM for five years. There is no talk of changing the CM.”
However, these mixed signals from the NCP has unsettled both the Sena and the Congress. Reduced to the status of a junior ally, the Congress leaders have often vented their resentment over the MVA affairs through public statements or in internal party meetings. The state Congress chief Nana Patole has taken up the issue of the grand old party getting “raw deal” within the ruling coalition. A slew of other state Congress leaders including cabinet ministers have regularly complained to their central leaders about the Sena and the NCP “ignoring” the party.
The Congress is also apprehensive that the NCP was trying to strengthen itself at the cost of the grand old party. “The NCP is trying to weaken the Congress,” has been a refrain among the state Congress leaders that they have been conveying to the central leadership. On several occasions, the Congress has aired its grievances over the NCP’s “partisan politics”, charging that from its position of power it was ensuring the allocation of more funds to its elected members for the development of their constituencies.
A senior NCP minister admitted, “We don’t harbour any hidden agenda. We want to see NCP emerge as number one party in Maharashtra so that we have our own CM” while accepting that taking the party’s tally from 54 seats up to a 100-plus target was a formidable task.
The NCP insiders dismiss any move to dislodge Thackeray midway pointing out that any mid-term change of guard would trigger fresh complications. The Congress endorsed Thackeray at the helm of the Maharashtra government based on a common minimum programme. There would be a question mark over the Congress’s response to any move to install a CM from the NCP. In such a case, the NCP itself will have to deal with internal problems, as it has about half-a-dozen CM aspirants in its ranks.
But the immediate task on hand for the three-party coalition was to keep their own votes intact in the Friday’s Rajya Sabha elections with the BJP candidates trying to inflict cross-voting from the ruling parties to ensure victory for its third candidate. With seven candidates in the fray for six Rajya Sabha seats from the state, “resort politics” is back live with all the parties moving their MLAs to hotels and resorts to prevent poaching by the opponents.
With each candidate requiring 42 votes for victory, the group of 25 MLAs belonging to the smaller parties and independents will play the key role in deciding the sixth seat. The MVA with 151 votes can win three seats but have fielded four candidates, while the BJP with 106 MLAs can win two seats but has fielded three candidates. The MVA will need 15 more votes to clinch the fourth seat which the BJP can pocket with 13 more votes from other parties or independents. But the balance currently is believe to be in favour of the MVA considering that at least 12 independents and MLAs from smaller parties have openly extended support to the ruling coalition.
