Mumbai:
Fed up with the continuous pressure tactics being employed by its estranged ally the Shiv Sena, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Friday in a veiled threat aimed at Sena argued that if no new government was not installed to power by November 7, then Presidents Rule can be imposed in Maharashtra. Though he further clarified that this was not a threat to the Sena, but the message was loud and clear.
Escalating the pressure on the BJP, senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut remarked that if Sena president Uddhav Thackeray were to decide, then Sena can have its Chief Minister. Speaking to newspersons, he added that if need be the Sena can prove it has the majority (145 MLAs) on its side. Raut further mocked the BJP remarking that if the BJP has the required majority then they too can stake claim to form the government.
What the Sena seems to forget that in 2014, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had sailed through the floor test in the legislative assembly minus the Sena. It is an open secret as how the BJP managed to win the trust vote with Sena occupying the opposition benches along with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Senior Sena leader Eknath Shinde was then the leader of opposition in the lower house. Sena joined the BJP government much later in the winter session of the state legislature in December, 2014. For the next five years till the recent assembly elections the Sena has always remained wary of the NCP. It may be recalled that during the recent influx of opposition leaders into the BJP, Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had urged the BJP to accept any other opposition leader, but not NCP president Sharad Pawar.
A week has passed since the 2019 assembly elections were announced on October 24 and the government formation is not even in sight. The state is facing agrarian crisis as farmers are distraught with unseasonal rains wreaking havoc. With the BJP refusing to concede even an inch of its ground to the Sena, the latter seems to be piling on the pressure.
The Sena has dropped another hint to the BJP stating that it could contemplate on supporting NCPs candidate for the election to the Legislative Assembly Speakers post. Sources in the BJP argued that the BJP could form a minority government by next week with Devendra Fadnavis taking oath as Chief Minister along with a few cabinet minister’s.
If the government fails to win the trust vote or cannot muster the required 145 MLAs to win it, the BJP could consider imposition of Presidents Rule in the state. This is not the first time that the State is under Presidents Rule. In 1980, Presidents Rule was imposed in Maharashtra from February 17 to June 8 in the state for 112 days following the dismissal of the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) alliance government of then chief minister Sharad Pawar. Presidents Rule was imposed for the second time for just 33 days in 2014 between September 28 to October 31, after the Congress and NCP parted ways.
