In a sensational claim, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that Maha Vikas Aghadi architects - Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray - had plans to make Supriya Sule and Aaditya Thackeray as the next Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, respectively, after the 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls.
The NCP and Shiv Sena (UBT) have pooh-poohed the claims saying that Bawankule does not have adequate knowledge.
After the 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls, the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena broke its nearly three-decade alliance with the BJP and joined hands with the Congress-NCP Democratic Front to set up the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Pawar, the NCP President, who is a four-time former chief minister and three-term union minister and Thackeray raised the MVA, a marquee anti-BJP coalition.
"This time, it was Thackeray and Ajit Pawar as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister….Pawar saheb and Uddhav ji were in the process of making a formula to make Supriya Sule the Chief Minister and Aditya Thackeray the Deputy Chief Minister in the state….it was due to this the Shiv Sena MLAs created ruckus,” claimed Bawankule.
Bawankule claimed that it was also decided to elect fewer MLAs of Shiv Sena for this - and this has irked the Shiv Sena MLAs.
Bawankule pointed out that the NCP - led by senior leader Sharad Pawar - had set a target of 100 MLAs.
"He has no knowledge of what is happening around. He is in 'vanvas'...don't take him seriously, he does not have political knowledge. He does not know Maharashtra," said Shiv Sena (UBT) chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member.
NCP leader Jitendra Awhad said that Bawankule did not even have knowledge that a rebellion was brewing up. "What Pawar saheb thinks no one is aware of, not even his family....what Bawankule is talking about, he could not even secure a Vidhan Sabha seat last time," said Awhad, an MLA and former Cabinet minister.
Supriya, who is an MP from Baramati has recently been appointed as the NCP Working President while Aadiya is the Worli MLA and Yuva Sena President and has been a Cabinet minister in the MVA government.