Uddhav Sena, Sharad Pawar's NCP spar over alliance's chief ministerial candidate
Uddhav Sena, Sharad Pawar's NCP spar over alliance's chief ministerial candidate
Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the opposition alliance in Maharashtra, is facing differences over who would be the alliance's chief ministerial candidate. The alliance,comprising Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Congress -- is aiming to dethrone the ruling Mahayuti alliance in the upcoming Assembly polls slated later this year.
NCP (SP) state president Jayant Patil said that Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents should stay away from naming a chief ministerial candidate ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections and instead focus on returning to power in the state.
Patil also said that no MVA ally should (unilaterally) declare the number of seats it is contesting as winnability will be the only criteria in the upcoming polls.
"The Maha Vikas Aghadi constituents should stay away from naming anyone as the chief minister (candidate). Instead, their priority should be returning to power. There should be no competition among the alliance members to avoid a gap," the former state minister said.
"There is no need to declare (unilaterally) the number of seats that the parties are contesting. Winnability will be the criteria for the candidates in the upcoming polls and we will support such candidates," he added.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut differed from Patil's opinion and said that it would be risky for the MVA to go to Assembly polls without a chief ministerial face. Raut also indirectly batted for Uddhav Thackeray as MVA's CM face.
"It will be risky to face Assembly polls without a CM face. Maharashtra has seen the good work done by Uddhav Thackeray as a Chief Minister during his tenure from 2019 to 2022," Raut said.
Leaders from the ruling Mahayuti alliance have also jumped into the debate and claimed that it was just the beginning of an internal rift within the MVA.
"This is just a beginning of the rift in MVA. Earlier, Congress state president Nana Patole took objection on a different chair kept for Uddhav Thackeray during a joint MVA rally. Uddhav Thackeray has strengthened Congress in recent Lok Sabha polls. Now, Congress will make UBT Sena taste their own medicine," Shinde Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat said.
BJP leader and Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan took a dig at Sanjay Raut and said that he was aiming for Uddhav to become the Prime Minister of India.
"However, now the race for the Chief Minister candidate just after securing better numbers in the Lok Sabha is their internal matter, and we do not want to interfere in it," Mahajan said.
Notably, in the Lok Sabha elections, the Sharad Pawar-led party gained an upper hand as it won eight out of 10 seats it contested. The Congress, which had won only one Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra in the 2019 polls, made an impressive comeback, winning 13 out of the 17 seats it contested.
The Thackeray-led party recorded a strike rate of 41 per cent, winning only nine of the 21 seats it contested.
MVA was inpower in Maharashtra from November 2019. However, it collapsed in June 2022 after the Shiv Sena split following a rebellion led by Eknath Shinde.