MVA Allies Should Contest 2024 State Assembly Polls Together: Sharad Pawar

Mumbai: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday said it’s his personal wish that the three MVA allies, NCP, Shiv Sena and Congress, should fight the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections together.

On the decision to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad districts, taken in the last cabinet meeting of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government, Pawar said the issue was not part of the MVA’s common minimum programme, and he came to know about the decision.

Responding to a question about whether MVA parties should contest the next assembly elections in the state together, Pawar said, “It is my personal wish that the MVA constituents fight the future elections together… but that is my personal opinion. I will discuss it first. This issue can be discussed with the leaders of my party and then with the coalition partners.”

The Thackeray-led MVA government fell on June 29, when his party Shiv Sena faced a rebellion started by senior leader Eknath Shinde. On June 30, Shinde took oath as the chief minister, while BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the deputy chief minister. Shinde has the support of 40 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs.

Taking a dig at the reasons given by the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs for their rebellion, Pawar said, “Disgruntled MLAs don’t give any definite reason. Sometimes they talk about Hindutva, sometimes about funds.”

After their rebellion, the rebel MLAs are saying that they went against the Shiv Sena leadership as the party was moving away from the cause of Hindutva. Some of them also spoke of not getting funds for their constituencies.

The NCP supremo said, “All the reasons – Hindutva, NCP and lack of development funds – given by the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs as an explanation for their decision, make no sense.”

Pawar claimed that he was completely unaware of the decision to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad as Sambhanjinagar and Dharashiv respectively.

“Renaming these places was not part of the common minimum programme of the MVA. I came to know only after the decision was taken. It was taken without prior consultation. Opinions were expressed by our people during the cabinet meeting over the proposal. But the decision was that of the (then) chief minister (Thackeray),” Pawar said.

Had any decisions about Aurangabad’s welfare been taken, people would have been happy, he added.

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