Senior Shiv Sena leader, Sanjay Raut, who has been on the offensive against BJP for the last one year and had adopted a combative tone, is now on the defensive in the Sachin Vaze case. Shiv Sena is terrified that the whole episode which has pushed the tri-party alliance government on the backfoot might lead to the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. And, this has forced a combative Raut to adopt a defensive tone.
“At the time of his (Waze) reinstatement, some leaders met me and I told them that he could create problems for us looking at his behaviour and style of functioning. I won’t name the leaders with whom I spoke, as these leaders and prominent people know about it,” said Sanjay Raut.
“Nobody could have control over the matter the way it went ahead. But it taught a lesson to the government and some ministers. It is said that whatever happens, happens for good,” he added.
A few days ago, Shiv Sena stood very strongly behind Sachin Vaze, and now the party is ready to sacrifice the person who handled the most sensitive cases for them.
A meeting took place between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and it has give rise to speculations about a possible BJP-NCP government in the state. “Everything need not be made public,” Amit Shah replied to the press when asked about the secret meeting in Ahmedabad on Saturday. The silence of the Union Home Minister has only led to further speculations about the possibility of a new government in Maharashtra. Moreover, Sharad Pawar also thanked Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for their wishes of a speedy recovery to the 80-year-old leader who is set to undergo surgery.
In the 288 seats strong Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, BJP has 105 seats while NCP has 53 seats and if both parties come together, they could easily cross the majority mark of 145.
The sitting chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray, is hugely unpopular in the state. He has proved to be among the most inefficient administrators in handling the Coronavirus pandemic along with Punjab CM, Amarinder Singh.
The cases, as well as death, is rising exponentially in the state and Uddhav Thackeray himself said that the state will undergo another 15 days lockdown from April 2 or 3 to curb the surge of the cases. Uddhav Thackeray’s inefficiency is destroying the economy of the most prosperous state of the country, and he has certainly become a liability for Sharad Pawar-led NCP.
If BJP goes into an alliance with NCP, it will demand primarily two things with the first being CM post-Devendra Fadnavis – who remains very popular as the leader of the opposition and proved very effective administrator as CM – and the ouster of Deshmukh. NCP would certainly agree with Fadnavis as CM given his popularity and the only contesting point would be Deshmukh but given Pawar’s astuteness, he will hesitate to sacrifice the NCP home minister for bigger gains.
After the results of the Maharashtra legislative assembly election and Shiv Sena’s betrayal, Fadnavis has been able to convince Ajit Pawar for the alliance with the saffron party but senior Pawar pulled off a different game altogether. This time, it seems, senior Pawar himself is willing to give a chance to the BJP-NCP alliance.