Saturday early morning, a never-heard-before political coup in Maharashtra exploded on the small screens at homes across the country. The overnight BJP storm had swept the post-poll alliance of convenience between the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress -- all set to coronate Sena Supremo Uddhav Thackeray to the throne of Maharashtra governance until late Friday evening after building a consensus on his leadership to lead the State government.
The Sena-NCP-Cong combine had to pay the price for the inordinate delay in stitching together an alliance. It is baffling that key political parties in the fray have undermined the capabilities of the BJP and the master finisher in Amit Shah, the man who is known for his political surgical strikes. The opposition parties failed to learn from the Goa and Karnataka experiments. Also, the dilly-dallying on government formation was always fraught with risk because the combine never enjoyed the confidence of the governor.
But, all may still not seem well for the BJP’s victorious march in the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s notices to the Centre, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar on a plea filed by the three parties challenging the Governor’s decision. The final order is slated for November 25.
The picture is clear for now, with Fadnavis at the helm and Ajit Pawar his deputy. But what’s unclear is Governor Koshiyari’s hurry in inviting team-Fadnavis to take oath early Saturday morning, merely on the premise that BJP expressed support of NCP MLAs.
One question that the saffron party needs to answer is why did the party reward Ajit Pawar with the plum post of deputy chief minister when it had been all this while yelling corruption charges against him. Ahead of the Assembly polls in the State, the Enforcement Directorate had registered money laundering cases against the two Pawars on September 24.
It is unethical on part of the BJP to cling on to the faction of the NCP for support despite it crying hoarse before the elections about the rampant corruption in the rival party. And now, the marriage of convenience with a group from the same party doesn’t make good sense. While Sharad Pawar has nothing to lose with the ouster of Ajit Pawar from family politics, thus paving the way for his daughter Supriya Sule to take charge of the party affairs in future, the Shiv Sena on the other hand could be at the end of the road if it fails the floor test - that’s what Pawar play is all about.
To prove its majority, the BJP government will have to attain the backing of 145 legislators in the 288-member state Assembly. On Monday, the focus will be on the decision of the Supreme Court on the future course of action in the drama playing out in Maharashtra. NCP claims that it has the support of 51 MLAs and that the BJP will not be able to prove its majority if an immediate floor test is ordered by the top court.
