'Collective leadership is our formula', says Sharad Pawar on Maharashtra CM candidature

Mumbai: At a time when the Maha Vikas Aghadi is working on a seat-sharing formula in the run up to the Vidhan Sabha polls in Maharashtra, the tripartite alliance’ chief architect Sharad Pawar said that the formula to the path ahead is “collective leadership”.

The MVA, a marque anti-BJP coalition comprises Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-head Shiv Sena (UBT), Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) and their dozen smaller political allies, which also has a huge backing from the civil society.

In the Lok Sabha polls, the MVA won 31 of the 48 seats as against the 17 of the BJP-led Maha Yuti (NDA).

Pawar’s statement about collective leadership came days after Thackeray’s close aide and Rajya Sabha member projected the Shiv Sena (UBT) head as the Chief Ministerial face of the alliance.

“It would be a risky proposition to contest the assembly elections without a CM-face,” Raut had said and projected Thackeray.

However, it did not go down well within the Congress and NCP (SP) ranks and files.

When asked about this, Pawar, a four-time former Chief Minister and three-time union minister, on Saturday said: “Our alliance is our collective face. One individual cannot become our chief ministerial face. Collective leadership is our formula”.

Pawar’s statement comes days after Congress asserted that the Chief Minister would be decided after the elections.

On being asked whether the MLAs of Ajit Pawar-led NCP would be taken back, Pawar said: “(State NCP chief) Jayant Patil and others are aware of this. I have not met anyone in person. Let’s see who comes. Do you have a list of names?”

However, he added: “People have decided (who the real NCP is). On their side, only one person won in one place. We won eight out of the 10 seats we contested. And even the one seat that we lost, we lost because of confusion between ‘tutari’ and ‘pipani' - otherwise we would have won 9 out of 10 seats.”

On MVA, he said: “We have decided that our three parties will sit together and make a decision. Parties that supported us in the Lok Sabha elections as part of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, like the PWP and AAP, will be included in the MVA.”

Pawar reiterated he would never contest elections. “I will not fight the elections, I will help wherever I can,” said Pawar.