Sparks flew in the opposition tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) as allies blamed each other in harsh words over the loss of Maharashtra assembly polls. Failure to hold even a single joint meeting to review the defeat in assembly polls has fueled doubts over the unity of the MVA.
Former Leader of Opposition and senior Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar on Friday said, “There are several reasons for the defeat of the MVA in state assembly elections. One of the reasons is the delay in seat sharing arrangements. It took 20 days for the MVA leaders to sort out the mess. Nana Patole and Sanjay Raut were the two leaders there. Had it been solved in two days, we would have got 18 extra days to campaign.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut shot back on Friday, saying that the Congress central leadership did not intervene when its state unit was driving a hard bargain during seat-sharing talks.
“There were several Assembly seats where the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Shiv Sena (UBT) had good candidates, but the Congress did not give up claim on those seats. Instead of one-upmanship, we could have carefully concluded the seat-sharing deal as a united MVA,” he said.
“If the alliance partners feel the INDIA bloc was only for the Lok Sabha polls and doesn’t exist now, the Congress is to be blamed. There has been no communication, dialogue. We fought the Lok Sabha elections (together) and got good results. There should have been a meeting to chalk out future plans and it was the Congress’ responsibility to take initiative in this regard,” he said.
NCP-SP MLA Jitendra Awhad said that senior leaders should first discuss matters behind closed doors before speaking out in public. “Wadettiwar still hasn’t left his official bungalow and he can very well host all the senior leaders of the MVA before making public statements,” he said.
On Thursday, addressing a gathering at the two-day review meeting of the NCP-SP, Party MP Amol Kolhe had said, “If you see the situation in the state, the Sena (UBT) is not ready to wake up and break back while Congress refuses to get straight.”
Jumping into the ongoing discourse, former minister and senior Congress MLA Nitin Raut said that all three parties of the MVA spent considerable time in seat negotiations instead of focusing on groundwork. “After the success of Lok Sabha polls, we failed to be alert and neglected the groundwork. We all suffered because of this,” said Raut, while speaking in Nagpur.
Sharad Pawar’s recent praise of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s work during the elections, reports of a possible merger between NCP-SP and NCP and three meetings between Sena(UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the last one month has only increased the unease surrounding the MVA.
Addressing the party meeting, Sharad Pawar said, “BJP used Hindutva. It is such a party where people have devoted life and have institutions such as RSS. They have people who spent their life for it,” Pawar had said. While party leaders have clarified that it was not a praise of RSS, but only an example of the strong groundwork, it has led to the confusion and anger among party workers.