MUMBAI: As certain opinion polls indicate winds of change in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections, fresh frictions have broken out among the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies over the coveted post of the next state Chief Minister, and the number of seats to contest
Senior leaders of the Congress-Shiv Sena (UBT)-Nationalist Congress Party (SP) have repeatedly proclaimed that the CM’s post would be decided only after the election results are declared.
MVA leaders, including NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar, raised an eyebrow and made it clear that the priority is to oust the ruling MahaYuti government of Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-Nationalist Congress Party, and the CM’s post would be finalised after mutual consultations by the MVA.
Notwithstanding the statements, Congress’ veteran leader Nitin Raut set the cat among the pigeons by claiming that the “Congress is the Big Brother in the MVA” alliance, creating ripples among the other allies.
The Congress Bhandara-Gondiya Lok Sabha MP Prashant Y. Padole went a step further and virtually ‘anointed’ state Congress President Nana F. Patole as “the next CM” after the Assembly polls.
Countering, the Shiv Sena’s (UBT) Leader of Opposition (Council) Ambadas Danve reiterated, “There’s no question that the next CM would be Uddhav Thackeray” and it is the desire of the people of the state.
Earlier, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut had thrown up the name of Thackeray, but after an internal storm in the MVA, later backtracked and spoke about a ‘consensus’ candidate after talks among the allies.
An NCP (SP) leader, not willing to be quoted, said that all the speculative talks of the prospective CM are irrelevant when the three main allies have yet to finalise the seat-sharing formula.
At one point, Patole had contended that the party which wins the maximum seats in the 288-member Assembly, would be the claimant for the CM’s post, but there were no takers for his proposal, and he was rebuffed even by some Congress leaders.
Nevertheless, hoping to score big, the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have been floating figures of how both parties would contest the lion’s share of 288 constituencies ostensibly to pre-empt rival claims and have unofficially even finalised the exact seats or candidates who could be fielded.
Among the figures being touted are Congress will contest 110-plus, Shiv Sena (UBT) to fight 125-plus, and the rest would go to NCP (SP), and other smaller allies, but of course, nobody believes these purported formulae as the formal seat-sharing talks are yet to take off.
The sole consolation for the MVA is that the situation is not exactly rosy in the MahaYuti camp also bickering over the CM’s post and the number of seats to be contested by each ally, dogs the ruling alliance.
However, both the ruling and Opposition sides are optimistic that the differences will be ironed out with the intervention of their respective top brass as soon as the elections are announced.