Mumbai The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has decided to maintain distance from Shiv Sena, as the party top brass is not sure about Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s future plans.
Party insiders said that they are wondering whether Uddhav will continue to fight against the rebels led by chief minister Eknath Shinde or will be forced to compromise.
While NCP, one of the allies in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition, will continue to maintain formal relations since both the parties are in the opposition now, it won’t be defending Shiv Sena at public platforms unless it is about decisions taken by the recently-collapsed MVA government. This was decided in a core committee meeting held at YB Chavan Centre, Nariman Point on July 3.
However, NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said that NCP is standing with Shiv Sena in this fight. “MVA alliance was formed only after Shiv Sena broke alliance with BJP and after Pawar saheb’s daily discussions with Congress leadership. Even if some Sena MLAs deserted the party at the behest of the BJP, Uddhav Thackeray is leading the real Shiv Sena and the NCP stands with him,” Tapase said.
Meanwhile, a senior leader of the party said, “The assessment of the top brass is that the Shiv Sena chief may go for a compromise if he stands to lose the party name and symbol to rebels in a legal battle. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will try to get it done because they want Uddhav Thackeray on their side but in a weaker version. Hence, the party should start maintaining a distance from the Sena.”
The contemplation is if Shiv Sena loses civic bodies of Mumbai and Thane, then they won’t have enough strength to contest the Assembly elections 2024 and may have to reach a position of compromise. Those with Uddhav Thackeray are also of the same view and have also suggested a compromise with Eknath Shinde, else there may not be any future, said the NCP functionary.
The letter written by Shiv Sena MP Rahul Shewale to Uddhav Thackeray, asking him to support the BJP-led NDA’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, is being seen by the NCP leaders as another attempt by the Shinde-led faction and BJP to force him to come to terms.
On Tuesday, Shewale wrote to the Shiv Sena chief asking him to support Murmu’s candidature, instead of the Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha, in the upcoming election scheduled on July 18.
“We should not be looking as losers if they have a compromise in the coming days as Shiv Sena has no commanders left even though they still have cadres on their side,” he added.
A day after Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in as chief minister and deputy chief minister respectively, the Shiv Sena chief questioned the BJP’s move of giving CM’s position to Shinde and said that the MVA would not have come into existence if BJP had accepted it in 2019 post assembly election results.
“Why have you (BJP) done it now and not then when Shiv Sena was officially with you in Maharashtra and at centre. People want to know the reason. Why did you force me to take up the CM position? Had the BJP respected the agreement, there would have been no MVA,” Thackeray said on July 1.
Another NCP leader pointed out, “It is not yet clear why the BJP chose Shinde over Fadnavis for the chief minister position. By this way, the party may have kept the door open for a patch up for Uddhav Thackeray as the latter have been arguing that the BJP leadership had promised a chief ministerial position for his party.”
However, a Shiv Sena MP confirmed that a few leaders have suggested going back with BJP and compromising with the Shinde faction. “There are leaders who have made the suggestion but Uddhav ji refused saying that NCP and Congress are standing with us when our own people deserted us for power,” he said, wishing not to be named.
