Sharad Pawar bats for MVA to contest 2024 polls under one umbrella

With the 2024 Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls approaching, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar urged for the need to formalise a plan for Maha Vikas Aghadi to contest the polls under one umbrella in in the state.

After the results of 2019 state polls, Pawar, a four-time Chief Minister and three-time union minister, stitched an alliance between the Congress-NCP Democratic Front and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena to form the MVA government in November.

However, in June 2022, the government headed by Thackeray was toppled by Shiv Sena rebel Eknath Shinde, who became the Chief Minister with the help of BJP.

Since then, Pawar has been urging the leadership of the three parties to formalise a broad arrangement for the polls to local bodies in 2023 and the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

According to Pawar, the elections should be fought under the MVA banner.

“The understanding is that the Congress, NCP and Uddhav Thackeray should work together..…the Republican parties and some groups should be included. But we are having discussions…we take decisions jointly on many issues, so there should not be any problem in this,” Pawar told reporters in Kolhapur.

To a question on the split in the Shiv Sena, he said: “The majority of the hardcore Shiv Sainiks who work on the ground stand behind Uddhav Thackeray.”

The MVA allies feel that there could be mid-term polls as the BJP-BSS government would fail in the test in the Supreme Court.