In yet another replay of crumbling coalitions which bedeviled Maharashtra’s politics prior to the 2014 Assembly elections, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has joined hands with the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in the Pune Municipal Corporation, leaving its traditional ally the Congress in the lurch.
The NCP offered its support to the MNS candidates during the election of civic panel heads, sparking speculation that the estranged partners may sever ties before the crucial 2017 PMC election.
“We are disgusted, but hardly surprised, at the NCP’s political opportunism. We have written to Congress State president Ashok Chavan, demanding severance of ties with the NCP at the local level,” said Arvind Shinde, Congress leader from Pune.
Mr. Shinde remarked that the NCP had set a precedent of opportunism after the results to the 2014 State Assembly polls in October by offering unsolicited support to the then minority Bharatiya Janata Party.
‘Grasping attitude’The NCP, meanwhile, squarely blamed the “grasping attitude” of the Congress for the new shift in alliances.
“The Congress betrayed us during the voting for the post of Director, Pune and Pune Metropolitan Public Transport (PMPML), and voted against the NCP by getting a Shiv Sena corporator elected to the position,” said NCP leader Subhash Jagtap.
The NCP and the beleaguered MNS already have a tie-up in the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC).
The latter party’s unceremonious rout in the 2014 Maharashtra poll coupled with a massive exodus of Raj Thackeray’s trusted lieutenants in recent months has led to the MNS tenuously holding on to power in the NMC, its only power ‘citadel’ in the State.