Maharashtra Politics: After Ajit Pawar’s rebellion in Maharashtra, a section of NCP has also joined the government. Earlier, Eknath Shinde broke away from the Shiv Sena and joined the BJP, which means that now a total of three parties are ruling Maharashtra together. The government of Maharashtra is running by taking the support of the rebel MLAs of both the major opposition parties. Opposition parties are constantly attacking the BJP regarding this. Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram has taken a dig at the Maharashtra government. In which he said that this government gave him ‘‘such animals with three legs’’ looks like a person running a 100 meter race.
Chidambaram taunts
Chidambaram taunted the coalition government of Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) and BJP and called it a three-legged animal. Regarding this, P Chidambaram wrote on Twitter, ‘‘The Chief Minister and two Deputy Chief Ministers of Maharashtra claim that their government is a triple engine government. It looks to me like a three legged animal running a 100 meter race.’’
Stirring After Ajit Pawar’s Rebellion
In a surprising development on July 2, Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra was torn apart when his nephew Ajit Pawar and other MLAs joined the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) alliance. Ajit Pawar was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister and eight other NCP leaders took oath as ministers. Since then, the opposition leaders are attacking the BJP. The opposition is alleging that the BJP is using the threat of ED-CBI to lure the MLAs into its fold.
Congress is also in danger
There were three major opposition parties in Maharashtra, which formed the government in 2019 after the election results. These included Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, but last year Eknath Shinde broke away from Uddhav Thackeray and rebelled and went with BJP taking 40 MLAs with him. The result was that Uddhav Thackeray’s government fell and BJP and Shinde together formed the government. After this, just a few days back Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar also broke away from the party along with more than 30 MLAs following Shinde’s path and joined hands with BJP.
Now Congress is the only opposition party left in Maharashtra, whose MLAs are currently looking united. After the breakup of Shiv Sena and NCP, Congress is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra with 44 MLAs. In such a situation, the party is worried that its MLAs may also change sides. For this recently a meeting was called in Delhi under the chairmanship of Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge. In which all issues related to Maharashtra were discussed.