All is not well as war of words rocks Maha Vikas Aghadi

A major war-of-words have broken out involving the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi partners – Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress - on the issue of going alone in future elections to local bodies, Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha.

Both, Uddhav Thackery-spearheaded Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar-led NCP maintained that if Congress takes the demand of contesting alone till the end, the two parties will have no other option but to work in fighting elections together.

Over the weekend, the war of words seems to have escalated, however, informal parleys are underway to defuse the situation.

On Saturday, Thackeray chose the 55th foundation of the saffron party on Saturday to answer Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole and his Mumbai counterpart Bhai Jagtap, both of whom are saying that they would go alone in future polls.

Read more: Better to join hands with PM Modi, patch up with BJP, Shiv Sena leader says in letter to Uddhav

In a sharp reaction, Thackeray said: "People would beat with footwear (those) who only talk about contesting elections alone without really resolving people's woes…which party does not want to win as many seats as possible fight elections on its own, but this is not the time for such announcements”.

It needs to be mentioned that next year, the majority of the municipal corporations including Mumbai would go for polls – which would be a sort of mini-Assembly elections – and all the political parties have launched preparations.

Thackeray’s statement came hours after a state Congress gathering – coinciding with the birthday of Rahul Gandhi – leaders after leaders including Patole and Jagtap felt the need of going alone. The top brass of the Congress including three former Chief Ministers – Sushilkumar Shinde, Prithviraj Chavan and Ashok Chavan, who is now a minister in the MVA government, were present.

AICC Secretary HK Patil, however, asked the partymen to work towards strengthening the unit and left the decision on alliances to the high command.

However, on Sunday, reacting to Thackeray’s statement, Patole said: “Even BJP has spoken of contesting elections independently. In the past, all four parties Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena and BJP have contested local bodies and Assembly polls independently.”

He said that the MVA was formed to keep BJP out of power. “This is not a permanent arrangement. Every party has the right to strengthen its organization and the congress has always given priority to providing relief to covid affected people by providing blood, oxygen, plasma at various places,” Patole said.

State NCP President and Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil said: “If Congress takes the call of going solo till the end, we both – Shiv Sena and NCP – would work together.”

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut said that his party fights all battles on its own strength and works for the pride of Maharashtra. “What Uddhav Ji said as Shiv Sena President was very clear…he has given direction to his party workers,” he said. “Shiv Sena's path ahead is clear. Let others come out of their chaos as one leader of other parties speaks of going alone and another leader from the same party says it was not the party line," Raut added.