Shiv Sena and Congress Alliance on Shaky Grounds before Upcoming Elections

Sena and Congress Alliance likely to fall apart…get the details…

Tuesday, 22nd June 2021

There might be cause to worry for the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra as Congress leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has compounded tensions by declaring that his party should fight the next election as an independent party and the state must have a "Congress Chief Minister".

The former CM said his words were directed at his party members intending to stir them and stated, "By Congress Chief Minister I meant the Congress will be the largest party in the alliance."

Chavan clarified that the alliance was formed with an "expiry date" in mind to work as a team against the BJP and was never meant to be a "permanent fixture". Their support for the Shiv Sena had already started hitting rocky shores when party leader Nana Patole commented that his party will contest the next assembly election alone.

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Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut portrayed a united front and assured of no fissures between the two parties. He said, any attempt by "outsiders" to "create cracks between the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena" will not work.

Uddhav Thackeray said at a party gathering, "If we do not offer solutions to people's problems but only talked about going it alone in politics, people will beat us with chappals. They will not listen to our party-centric, ambitious talk of contesting elections alone." He had sided with the Congress and the NCP in 2019 having severed ties with the BJP, and taken power in Maharashtra.

Thackeray's comments, although did not name any names, were clearly taking a dig at the Congress party and alluding to Patole's comments.

The Shiv Sena supremo had been in a meeting with PM Modi on June 8 at the former's request. he was seeking the Centre's help in connection with the demand for a Maratha quota that was recently turned down by the Supreme Court.

The one-on-one meeting drew a lot of notice as days afterwards Raut has heard saying, "BJP owes its success in the last seven years to Modi. At present, Modi is still the tallest leader of the country and BJP."

A Sena MLA Sarnaik also commented that party leaders would be better off joining hands with the BJP and they should do so "before it is too late." He was referring to the upcoming corporation elections.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

NDTV