MUMBAI: The Maha Vikas Aghadi the alliance of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and the Congress appeared split over the appointment of the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Maharashtra Legislative Council.
Congress has said that the Shiv Sena should have consulted it before nominating its MLC Ambadas Danve for the post. Congress’ Balasaheb Thorat, who is also the party’s legislative wing leader, sought to justify the party position saying the NCP already had the chairman’s post while the Shiv Sena held the number two post. “The Congress has thus staked its claim over the LoP post,” he said.
“The Sena did not consult us and submitted Danve’s name for the post of the Leader of Opposition to the Vidhan Bhavan. In an alliance, there should not be a communication gap. We will take it up with Uddhav Thackeray,” Thorat said. State party chief Nana Patole too justified the Congress party’s position on similar lines.
State NCP chief Jayant Patil said that Sena should have spoken to his party leadership. “There should have been proper coordination between all the allies. The Congress leader had discussed the matter with us before submitting their candidate’s name, but the Shiv Sena did not consult us at all,” Patil said.
In the 78-member council, BJP has 24 MLCs, while the Shiv Sena has 12 members and the Congress and NCP have 10 each. As per the numbers, the party or alliance with the largest number of MLCs can get the chairman’s post while the second largest party gets the LoP post.
Ambadas Danve is a grassroots Shiv Sena leader from Aurangabad. He has remained steadfast in his loyalty to Uddhav in the face of a rebellion by five Shiv Sena MLAs from the region.
SAD: BJP hatching plot to curb regional parties
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday said the BJP is trying to finish regional parties but SAD will not be trounced. The SAD is now trying to revamp its rank and file. As many as 39 acting rural and urban SAD presidents on Thursday met party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. After the meeting, Iqbal Singh Jhundan, Virsa Singh Valtoha and Mantar Singh Brar said, “The intention is to break regional parties to spread BJP’s hegemony, as seen in Bihar and Maharashtra.” They expressed confidence that BJP will not succeed in weakening SAD.