At a time when they were planning to initiate seat-sharing talks, an intense war of words has broken out between the three Maha Vikas Aghadi partners - NCP, Congress, and Shiv Sena (UBT) - in the wake of the emerging political situation in Maharashtra over the past fortnight.
Continuing the tussle, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar on Tuesday snubbed Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut and former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan.
Journalist-politician Raut, who is a close aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray, on Monday, in an editorial in Saamana commented that Pawar had failed to groom a successor though he failed a bid of some MLAs to walk away to the BJP.
It was Pawar’s turn to hit back. “They do not know what we are doing in our party…What we decide in our party is our internal matter… our colleagues know how our party will move forward and we are satisfied with what we are achieving,” Pawar said.
Pawar’s statement comes after senior leaders including his nephew and Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar, state unit President Jayant Patil and veteran Chhagan Bhujbal. “He has no business saying this…does it mean that NCP should come out of MVA,” Bhujbal said.
The NCP also hit out at Chavan's statement that he made a day ago during the Karnataka poll campaign. “NCP is the BJP’s B Team in Karnataka,” Chavan had said.
Pawar, however, hit back saying: “He should check what stature he has in his own party...whether it is A, B, C or D. Any colleague from his party would tell you in private.”
NCP national spokesperson Clyde Crasto said: "By passing frivolous statements about NCP, Chavan is behaving like a BJP agent trying to create a rift among allies. Truth is, even his party Congress does not take him seriously anymore, therefore his statements will not make any difference.”
However, state Congress President Nana Patole said: “After the Karnataka assembly elections, the constituent parties of the MVA will sit together and discuss the seat allocation for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections.”
There is no disagreement about the allocation of seats in MVA, he asserted.