NCP, Cong parted ways due to significant differences: Pawar
Mumbai: A day after ending its 25-year-old alliance with Shiv Sena, BJP on Friday ruled out a post-poll tie-up with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP after the October 15 Maharashtra Assembly elections. “The question doesn’t arise,” BJP general secretary in charge of state Rajiv Pratap Rudy said here.
“Why should there be a future alliance? I can tell you with certainty that we are going it alone. They (Congress and NCP) are going to be non-existent in the state after elections,” he said. The former Union minister said, “This is an insensible logic and a reckless argument that BJP will go with NCP after polls. Both Congress and NCP are equally to blame for the mess in Maharashtra.’
Asked if Narendra Modi will play a key role in the BJP campaign in Maharashtra, Rudy said the Prime Minister is “most likely to be with us (for the campaign) after October 3.”
The leadership in Maharashtra has requested the Prime Minister to be present and give his valuable time, he said. “He is the PM who has proved his position and has been elected. He is the face of India across the world,” Rudy said. On curtains coming down on the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance, he said, “It was heart rending to part ways with Sena.”
BJP’s central leadership had left the decision on the alliance to the state unit, he said. Maharashtra will witness a five-cornered contest, the BJP leader said.
Asked if he favoured President’s rule in Maharashtra after NCP pulled out of the government, Rudy said, “Normally, this (President’s rule) is a natural consequence if a government has lost its majority and the chief minister quits, but I am not the right person or the authority to decide it.” To a question on who could be the next to leave the BJP-led alliance after Sena, he said, “This is all speculation.”
NCP-Cong differrences: Significant differences on “critical issues” forced NCP to take “bold” step of ending the 15-year-old alliance with Congress in Maharashtra, party chief Sharad Pawar on Friday said.
The Maratha strongman also said that his party would seek support of “other secular parties” for the assmebly polls next month. In a series of tweets, Pawar said, “I would like to say that there were significant differences between our party & Congress on various critical issues. Due to time constraint & other issues, we were compelled to take bold step to end 15 years of alliance with Congress in Maharashtra.” “So our party has decided to contest this elections independently and we will be happy to take support from other secular parties,” he tweeted.
While he did not elaborate on what were the critical issues, NCP had pulled a rabbit out of its hat by raising the demand for rotational Chief Ministership at the last minute during the seat sharing talks with Congress in Maharashtra. NCP had sought the Chief Minister’s post for half of the 5-year term if the alliance retained power.
The formula was adopted by Congress in Jammu and Kashmir sometime back with its then state partner PDP. Supporters of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan were hinting for long that NCP leader Ajit Pawar would not like the alliance to take place as he aspired for the top post.
The tussle over chief minister’s post led to the break up of rival alliances of BJP-Shiv Sena and Congress-NCP.
The development was not unexpected given the fact that the BJP and the NCP, which were the junior partners in the rival alliances, were uneasy over the dominance of the Shiv Sena and Congress respectively. The appointment of Prithviraj Chavan, as Maharashtra Chief Minister less than four years ago, was described by a senior Congress leader as an “experiment” based on his experience in the hope that it would galvanise the party. (PTI)