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M'rashtra Council post: Wily Pawar leaves Sena fuming

Last Updated 20 March 2015, 18:17 IST

The recent political churning in Maharashtra – which reflected in Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) taking the help of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to corner the Congress – has left the Shiv Sena fuming. 

The scene of action was the Maharashtra Legislative Council, which has 78 members. The NCP garnered support from the BJP to defeat Shivajirao Deshmukh of the Congress, who was the Chairman of the Upper House, through a no-confidence motion. While the NCP and the BJP, which have a strength of 28 and nine members respectively, and smaller parties like the PWP and some Independents, voted in favour of the no-confidence motion, 22 Congress members were against it. The Sena, however, abstained from voting as it was of the opinion that there was no reason to unseat Deshmukh.

The development comes as a major relief for Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who has been at the receiving end of the Shiv Sena. There is a strange sequence of events in the Council – after the BJP-Shiv Sena settled down in power – the NCP, as it was ahead in the numbers game, got late Gopinath Munde’s rebel nephew Dhananjay Munde of the NCP as the Leader of Opposition. 

For the Chairman’s post, NCP’s Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar was elected on Friday. As of now,  Deputy Chairman Vasant Davkare is also of the NCP. This is for the first time when a party occupies the post of Chairman as well as Leader of Opposition. Subsequent to Deshmukh being removed, the Sena too staked claim for the post. However, the Sena withdrew after Fadnavis spoke to Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. The post of Deputy Speaker in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is vacant – and the Sena may be offered that post. The Sena also preferred not to contest as they would be needing the BJP support for the byelections in Bandra-East.

“More than unsettling the Congress, the development actually offers more stability to the government in Maharashtra,” said veteran journalist and political analyst Prakash Akolkar, who had penned down the first biography of Shiv Sena – ‘Jai Maharashtra’.  Akolkar points out that political developments now need to be seen in the context of 2017 municipal polls when several big corporations including Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nagpur besides others go to polls. “For the Shiv Sena, the Mumbai corporation is the life blood. The Shiv Sena would make all attempts to ensure that they have control over Mumbai’s civic body, with or without the BJP,” he said.

Political observers said that Pawar is one of the most seasoned and practical politicians and the BJP always respected him.  Hence, the Valentine Day bridge-building between Pawar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the former’s hometurf should not be taken as a surprise. “In fact, when Modi said that there is hardly any month when we have not spoken two to three times, it was a sort of acknowledgement of Pawar’s political acumen and administrative abilities,” a senior NCP leader pointed out. He said when A B Vajpayee was the prime minister, he made Pawar the Vice Chairman of National Disaster Management Authority which was set up in the aftermath of the earthquake in Gujarat.

Political analysts point out that even as the result of the Maharashtra assembly which had returned a hung House was coming in, Pawar’s trusted aide Praful Patel extended “unconditional outside support” to the BJP in forming the government and making it comfortable for the floor test sans the Shiv Sena. However, later, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party joined the government. But the BJP continues to have an upper hand and say in administration. This is why the Shiv Sena does not hesitate in launching broadside against the BJP.

Reasons to be worried

When the BJP supported the NCP in unsettling the Council Chairman – reasoning that it was part of the larger strategy of Modi’s mission of “Congress-mukt Bharat” – it was actually repaying the debt of the support that the government got during the initial stages.

The Shiv Sena, which has been voicing its disagreement with the BJP on various issues both at the Centre and in Maharashtra, has more than a reason to be worried about over the manner in which its alliance partner’s decision to get closer to the NCP. Whether it is opposition to the Jaitapur nuclear power project or the Land Bill etc, the Sena mouthpieces have been airing editorials slamming Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah or for that matter Fadnavis.

After Deshmukh was removed, Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse said: “We have supported the NCP for prime minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Congress-mukt Bharat”. On his part, Pawar’s nephew and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar denied that his party had struck any secret deal with the BJP. “Given the strength

we had, we are the natural claimants for Chairman’s post. But, Deshmukh was not ready to resign from his post. That’s why we moved a no-confidence motion against him”.Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan – a critic of Pawar –  said the NCP’s decision to team up with the BJP did not come as a surprise to him.

“The NCP had severed links with us before the  Assembly polls. It is for the NCP to decide on whom to ally with. But, what surprises me is that a party like the NCP which used to pride itself as the being secular, has chosen to team up with the BJP at a time when the nation is witnessing and experiencing the ruling saffron party’s communal agenda.”

“Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam was direct in the attack. “There should be a definite reason for the no-confidence motion against Deshmukh. There is a hidden alliance between the NCP and the BJP to remove Deshmukh. I feel that the BJP will cheat the Shiv Sena in future,” he said.

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(Published 20 March 2015, 18:17 IST)

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