Political mercury is soaring in Maharashtra amid speculations of Ajit Pawar joining the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra along with over 40 NCP MLAs. The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), consisting of Sharad Pawar’s NCP, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT), and Congress, among others, is likely to suffer in the state with Ajit Pawar moving out with his loyalists.
In the present state assembly, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Shiv Sena and BJP has 162 seats and the MVA led by Shiv Sena (UBT) has 121 seats. According to the election commission, the legislative assembly of Maharashtra consists of 288 seats and the political parties require 145 seats to stake a claim for the formation of the government.
In the current context, the NDA government in Maharashtra has extra 15 seats required to constitute a stable government. However, talks around political space claim that Ajit Pawar is likely to join the NDA with the 40 MLAs of the NCP. If it turns out to be true in the future, the NDA government will have more than 200 MLAs in Maharashtra, against 145 required to form a government.
Ajit Pawar to push MVA into crisis?
The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi is again in plight, years after Eknath Shinde joined the BJP-led NDA along with nearly 40 MLAs. According to sources, as many as 40 MLAs from the NCP have given their consent and extended support to Ajit Pawar on his next move of joining the NDA.
Amid the speculations of Ajit Pawar’s alleged rebellion, the latter has also deleted the NCP logo from his cover picture on Twitter. The NCP leader, Anil Patil, while commenting on party leader Ajit Pawar, said, “Dada (Ajit Pawar) is with NCP. Whatever will be his decision, we will be with him.”
Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has denied all the speculation on Ajit Pawar quitting the party and extending support to the BJP in Maharashtra. He said, “Some people are just making news, and other than that creating a hype, this news has no meaning. I can say about NCP that all the party leaders working in this party are working with one idea- how to strengthen the party. Ajit Pawar is busy with election-related work and all this talk of NCP break-out is false.”
