A flurry of activity leads to doubts about govt’s stability

The sudden spurt in political activities in the past three days, amid Opposition's attacks on the Uddhav Thackeray government over its handling of corona crisis, have raised questions about the stability of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi's remark that his party was only supporting the government in Maharashtra, and was not in the driving seat added fuel to the fire.

It all started on Monday afternoon with NCP president Sharad Pawar's meeting with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. This was followed by Pawar's one-and-a-half-hour meeting with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, which was also attended by Sanjay Raut, Sena's Rajya Sabha member and executive editor of the party's mouthpiece Saamana.

Milind Narvekar, Sena's secretary and personal assistant to Thackeray, had met Koshyari on Sunday evening. Prior to this, Raut had met Koshyari on Friday, and the image of him bowing before the governor went viral.

All these events led to people connecting dots and speculating about the stability of the coalition government.

A senior NCP functionary said, "Pawar got a whiff of the behind-the-door activities in Delhi to destabilise the MVA government after which he decided to accept Koshyari's invitation for high tea. He wanted to find out what was going on in Delhi."

The functionary said that during his meeting with Thackeray at Matoshree on Monday, Pawar apprised the CM of the political situation and attempts to destabilise his government. "At the same time, Pawar expressed his concern over the rising cases of coronavirus in the state, especially in Mumbai. He urged Thackeray to ensure that this doesn't give the BJP a chance to destabilise the government," said the NCP functionary.

Gandhi, in an interview to a news channel on Tuesday, said, "Unlike in Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Puducherry, we (Congress) are not running the government in Maharashtra. We are just part of it, so decisions on lockdown and movement of migrants can't be taken unilaterally by the Congress."

In fact, a few days ago, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan had expressed similar sentiments when he said, "It is a Sena government and not the Congress government."

However, speaking with news channels, Pawar on Tuesday said that there was no danger to the MVA government. "There is no need to read any political meaning in my meeting with Koshyari. I had not met him since he had taken over as governor of the state, so I decided to visit him. And in my meeting with Thackeray, we reviewed the current situation in the state. I gave him my inputs on how it can be improved."

A senior Sena cabinet minister said that there might be a difference of opinion between the NCP and the Sena about lifting of the lockdown, but there was no conflict. "The CM is of the view that the lockdown has to be lifted gradually, but the NCP wants more relaxations and fast. That's about it. There are no other differences, and there is no conflict. Pawarsaheb and Uddhavji are meeting regularly to discuss the tackling of the Covid-19 pandemic," the minister said.

Political analyst Prakash Akolkar said, "The MVA is a coalition of the parties, which need each other desperately, so whatever may happen, no party will walk out of the government. They may continue to make some noises to make their presence felt."

Rahul trying to put entire blame on Uddhav: Fadnavis

Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s statement, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Devendra Fadnavis, said, “No doubt the situation in the state is bad, but Gandhi is trying to put the entire blame on Chief Minister Thackeray and trying to save his party from the failures of this government. However, the Congress is not merely supporting the government but is part of it. ”

Fadnavis alleged that in a bid to divert people’s attention from the government’s failures, the MVA constituents were trying to play a victim card and put the blame on the Centre, claiming that it was not helping Maharashtra .