Sharad Pawar dubs Shiv Sena as 'party which one can trust', backs MVA to do well in polls

Setting all speculation to rest, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar predicted that the MVA government will fulfill its full 5-year term and reserved special praise for ally Shiv Sena. These remarks assume significance amid the one-on-one meeting between Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and PM Modi and Pawar's meeting with BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis last week. Addressing party cadres on the 22nd Foundation Day of NCP, he stated that the Sena is a party that can be trusted.

To buttress his point, he recalled that late Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray had kept his commitment of not fielding any candidates against Congress in 1977 as promised to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.  On Thursday, he said, "We have established a government having a different ideology. No one would have imagined that Sena and NCP can work together. But we did it and fortunately, people have liked this experiment". 

Moreover, he added, "The government will last its full term and also perform well in the next Lok Sabha and Assembly polls". This is being perceived as an indication that NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena will also contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly polls thereafter together. The former Union Minister further claimed that the government had done well during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

MVA formation and inherent challenges

Despite winning a comfortable majority of its own in the 2019 Assembly election, NDA could not form the government over Shiv Sena's demand for the rotational CM post. After the imposition of the President's Rule in the State, BJP took a surprising step of joining hands with NCP's Ajit Pawar, who had reportedly promised the support of other legislators. However, the new Fadnavis-led government had to resign ahead of the SC-mandated floor test owing to the paucity of numbers. Subsequently, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray took oath as the CM of Maharashtra backed by new allies NCP and Congress on November 28, 2019.

In the last few months, multiple Congress leaders including Balasaheb Thorat have expressed their concerns over their party being neglected in the coalition government. In May 2020, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi had publicly stated that Congress was not the key decision-maker in Maharashtra. Congress has locked horns with Shiv Sena over numerous issues including the demand to rename Aurangabad. On various occasions, Congress has made it clear that it would not hesitate to quit the Maharashtra government if anyone speaks against its leadership. 

Similarly, tensions between NCP and Shiv Sena reportedly escalated over the handling of the Vazegate scandal after the latter insisted on Anil Deshmukh's resignation as the Home Minister. Moreover, speculation was rife about a possible change of guard in Maharashtra after a secret meeting between Sharad Pawar and Union Home Minister Amit Shah at Ahmedabad in end-March. While NCP issued a denial, Shah's response that "not all things can be made public" was seen as an admission that the meeting did take place.