Ruling out speculation of any discord between the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress in the functioning of the Maharashtra government, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday said the tripartite ‘Mahavikas Aghadi’ government, led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, was running very smoothly and that there was no doubt it would complete its full five-year term.
Speaking in his stronghold Baramati, Mr. Pawar further stressed that coordination between three ideologically opposed parties in running a government properly was one thing and that the right of each party to increase its strength was quite another.
“There is a consensus among all three parties in this coalition. There are no differences or any rifts. There is always a joint discussion of my colleagues in these three parties on strategic issues,” said the NCP chief.
Mr. Pawar’s remarks come amid reports of tensions between the three MVA partners, with the Congress’ recent pronouncements of fighting polls alone and the Sena’s alleged frustration at being dominated by the NCP.
“We came together on issues while forming the MVA government…we are aware that some questions arise while running a government. So, a mechanism in form of a core committee was set-up to resolve these questions. Leaders of all the three parties — Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat and Ashok Chavan from the Congress, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Jayant Patil from the NCP and Industries’ Minister Subhash Desai and Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde representing the Sena — are part of this committee which works to sort these problems,” he said.
The six leaders sit together and make decisions on any important strategic question, Mr. Pawar said.
“Therefore, this government is running very smoothly and here is no doubt that it will last for five years,” the NCP chief stressed.
While running a government smoothly was one thing, the second part was to pay attention to building their respective parties, he further said.
“Increasing the respective strengths of all three parties and engaging in organization-building is only natural. All three parties in the coalition are agreed on this endeavour. That does not mean there are any differences between the three partners,” Mr. Pawar said.
