BJP, allies over two dozen seats short of halfway mark in Maharashtra
The Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government faces a crisis after losing touch with minister Eknath Shinde and over a dozen lawmakers
As the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government faces a crisis after losing touch with minister Eknath Shinde and over a dozen lawmakers, Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chandrakant Patil said they will think about forming the government.
The BJP has 106 lawmakers in the 288-member House while its allies have eight. With 114 lawmakers, BJP and its allies are 30 short of the halfway mark of 144 even as a seat is vacant in the assembly.
The MVA government has been firefighting since Shinde-led lawmakers left for Gujarat’s Surat after the state legislative council election concluded on Monday. Shiv Sena’s two candidates got 52 votes though the party was expecting 64, which included 55 of its own and those of independents and smaller parties. At least 12 of the 64 lawmakers were believed to have cross-voted.
The ruling coalition partners Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Congress got 169 votes in the 2019 trust vote in the state assembly. On Monday, the three parties managed 150 votes in the council polls.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has two while the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, and Swabhimani Paksha have one seat each. AIMIM backed the ruling coalition in the Rajya Sabha polls this month.
BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar denied Shinde was in his party’s touch but added they were watching the situation very closely. “We will take the required steps whenever it will be required in the interest of Maharashtra. This was bound to happen one day as Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray betrayed the people’s mandate given in October 2019 [assembly polls]. We had been warning them about the discontent among the people over such betrayal, but they did not pay heed to it.”
Shiv Sena ended its decades-long alliance with the BJP and formed the government with NCP and Congress in 2019.
Patil said it will be too premature to comment on the possibility of the steps they will take. “What is happening in Sena is their internal matter and we do not want to speak on it.” He added the BJP has no role in Sena lawmakers being unreachable to their leadership. “Shinde may have some well-wishers in Gujarat and he may have taken their help. I do not know if our Gujarat state chief is one such well-wisher.”