Mumbai: Sharad Pawar, a key component of the government in Maharashtra, remains firmly committed to his alliance with the Congress and the Shiv Sena; a series of recent meetings he has held do not indicate any reconsideration on his part, he told NDTV today.
“Fadnavis is getting impatient,” Mr Pawar told NDTV in an exclusive interview today, referring to the former Chief Minister and implying that Devendra Fadnavis is keen to bring down the government. “But there is no threat to the Maharashtra government. All MLAs are with us, any attempt to break them at this time will result in the public beating us,” Mr Pawar said.
Maharashtra is worst-off in India’s battle with coronavirus – the city of Mumbai has the maximum number of cases in the country. The opposition BJP has been attacking the state government for its alleged inadequecies in dealing with the crisis. Senior BJP leader Narayan Rane has said that the state should be put under President’s Rule with the government of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray being removed.
Even though the Congress was absent at Mr Pawar’s meeting with the Chief Minister, Mr Pawar told NDTV that all three coalition partners in Maharashtra were together, and united in fighting the COVID threat.
After Maharashtra voted in October, Mr Pawar was the centrepiece of the strategy that saw Mr Thackeray, the president of the Shiv Sena, taking over as Chief Minister. The Sena, after the election results, divorced the BJP after a thirty-year-long political marriage. As it began exploring new partnerships, Devendra Fadnavis returned as Chief Minister with a new ally- Ajit Pawar who is Mr Pawar’s nephew. Together, they said, they had the numbers required to win the trust vote. In a highly controversial move, Mr Fadnavis of the BJP was sworn in at dawn by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari – a tactic seen as highly partisan from an office meant to represent strict neutrality.
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