Allies strike power deal ahead of Uddhav’s oath
NCP gets deputy CM, Cong speaker; Oppn leaders to attend swearing-in
MUMBAI: Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will get to nominate a deputy chief minister and a Congress MLA will occupy the assembly Speaker’s position, the newly formed three-party alliance, Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, said on Wednesday as the state prepared for Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s swearing-in as chief minister.
Senior NCP leader Praful Patel made the announcement after a six-hour meeting of the three parties. All other ministerial portfolios will be announced after the new dispensation proves its majority before the December 3 deadline set by the governor.
“How many ministers take the oath will be decided tonight. One or two MLAs from each party will take the oath as ministers. It is not decided yet how many ministers will take the oath with the chief minister tomorrow,” said Patel. The alliance claims the support of 166 legislators, well above the halfway mark of 145 in the 288member assembly.
The announcement came hours after dissident NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who stunned the party on Saturday morning by breaking ranks and backing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), returned to the party fold. “It was not a revolt. I was the leader of NCP. Did NCP remove me? Did you read [about my removal from NCP] somewhere?” Ajit Pawar asked reporters.
Outside, many of his supporters hailed him as a future chief minister and a senior party leader said the front-runners for the deputy CM’s position were Ajit Pawar and assembly floor leader Jayant Patil.
“All is well in the family now,” said Hemant Takle, national secretary of the NCP.
The BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis resigned as chief minister and Ajit Pawar, nephew of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, resigned as deputy chief minister on Tuesday afternoon after it became clear that the government lacked a majority. He then went to meet Sharad Pawar and was also greeted by senior party MP Supriya Sule, who, two days ago, had termed his actions a betrayal.
“Whatever has happened, leave it behind. I did not feel like disclosing all the details of what has happened in the last few days,” Ajit Pawar told party legislators at a meeting.
Ajit Pawar’s return marked the end of four days of turbulence in NCP’s first family as the focus shifted to the oath-taking ceremony of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, who will become the first person in the powerful Thackeray family to hold a constitutional post.
The alliance has attempted to use the 6.40pm event, to be held in central Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, as a grand show of strength for opposition parties and invited a number of prominent non-BJP leaders, including the chief ministers of West Bengal, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Kamal Nath and Bhupesh Baghel, respectively). Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief MK Stalin was also invited.
Thackeray also invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and spoke to him over the phone, said Sena leaders. Late in the evening, Thackeray’s son Aaditya landed in Delhi to invite Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh to the ceremony.
PREPARATIONS TO SWEAR IN UDDHAV ON IN FULL SWING IN SENA BASTION IN MUMBAI
MUMBAI: A 9,000-feet stage. A 30 feet-tall platform. The background of the stage make in the likeness of the historic Raigad Fort nestled in the Sahyadri ranges and made immortal by legendary Maratha king Shivaji in 1674 when he established his capital here. And giant screens mounted on trucks on the roads that ring the stage.
This is how Shivaji Park, located in the middle-class dominated neighbourhood of Dadar, and close to the Chaityabhoomi, is readying for the grand swearing-in ceremony of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as Maharashtra’s chief minister on Thursday. Dadar has served as the nerve centre for the sprawling Shiv Sena network for more than four decades. The Sena headquarters, Sena Bhavan, located in the neighbourhood is abuzz with activity.
If all goes to plan, 59-year-old Thackeray will become the first from the powerful family to hold a constitutional post, 43 years after his father, Bal Thackeray, established the Sena and changed the face of India’s financial capital. The stage for the ceremony is being designed by art director Nitin Desai, who has also installed screens at the back of the stage to broadcast clips from prominent cultural events from across the state during the event.
“We are proud of Uddhav as he has finally fulfilled the promise made to Balasaheb (Uddhav’s father),” said 62-year old Mandir Goad, an activist from Parel.
He said he was happy that the Sena’s former ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had been relegated to the opposition benches.
The sentiment was shared by many residents in the Marathi stronghold that is considered a pocket borough of the Sena.
The Dadar-Parel-Lalbaug belt, home to many textile mills that closed in a wave of worker strikes and lockouts in the 80s, has stood by the Sena, and it was in Parel from where the first MLA of the party, Wamanrao Mahadik was elected in 1969. “It is good that Uddhav is taking over as the chief minister as he is acceptable to all the Sena workers. Anyone else from the Sena would have invited heartburn within the Sena leaders,” said Mahesh Halwai, a resident of Lalbaug.
At Shivaji Park, Sena workers trooped in from all corners of the state, many of them reminiscing the 1995 oath-taking ceremony of Manohar Joshi – the first time a Sena chief minister had taken charge. “I am lucky to witness this memorable moment after 24 years and we really miss Balasaheb,” said Purshottam Barde, a party worker who hails from Solapur. It was at Shivaji Park that Shiv Sena founder, Bal Thackeray, was cremated in 2012. Thousands of Shiv Sainiks poured in from across the state to attend the funeral of Uddhav Thackeray’s father on November 18, seven years ago.
BJP IGNORED SENIOR LEADERS, SAYS KHADSE
MUMBAI: Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), senior party leader Eknath Khadse on Wednesday said had the BJP not ignored leaders such as Prakash Mehta, Chadrashekhar Bawankule, Vinod Tawde, besides himself, it would have won 20 to 25 more seats in the recently concluded Maharashtra elections.
“Those who helped this party succeed were left behind, when we toiled to make this party great. It was my right to walk with BJP, as I have toiled for the party for 40-42 years,” he said.The BJP won 105 seats in the 288-seat assembly as against 122 it had won in 2014 elections. Khadse, Mehta, Bawankule and Tawde were ministers and legislators in the previous BJP-led government, who were not given a ticket by the party in the 2019 elections. “Even if the party could not give us tickets, they should not have ignored us,” Khadse said. He was part of former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ cabinet in the previous government between 2014 and 2016, until he resigned following allegations of corruption.