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. After Maharashtra voted in October, Pawar was the core of the strategy that saw 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 Pawar’s nephew. Together, they said, they had the numbers required to win the trust vote. In a highly controversial move, 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.
Fadnavis lasted 72 hours in office. Pawar was able to arrange a reconciliation with his nephew; their party, the Nationalist Congress Party, then moved into a joint effort with the Sena and the Congress; and their new government, called the ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’, took charge of the state. Pawar is a mercurial friend given to political expediency. In the last parliament session, he was reported to have several interactions with the Prime Minister. Yesterday, he met with the Governor and with the Chief Minister. No reason to connect the dots to interpret his appointments as examining his options, he said today.
Describing his meeting with the Governor as a “courtesy call”, he said it was not he sought the meeting and that they did not discuss either “COVID or politics”. His conferral with the Chief Minster he described as “routine”, though he admitted it was unusual for him to visit Thackeray at his storied home of “Matoshree” in Mumbai.
The two leaders met for about one-and-a-half hours late Monday evening.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said that there was “no need to worry about the stability of the government”, while asserting that the state government is “strong”.