After 15 years in power in Maharashtra, the ruling Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance split on Thursday with the latter pulling out, accusing its senior ally of high-handedness during seat-sharing talks. The Congress however, alleged that the NCP’s decision to split was pre-planned.
Deputy Chief Minister and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar directly blamed Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for the break-up. “We have dealt with several Congress chief ministers. But this time we were ignored in seat-sharing talks and felt there was no option,” said Mr Pawar.
Union Minister Praful Patel said the Congress had taken the talks too casually and kept the NCP waiting for weeks on its demands. . “Even yesterday Mr Chavan spent the day in his constituency instead of being available for talks,”said Mr Patel.The NCP seemed to be weighing its options based on news of a split within the saffron camp. Their decision was announced minutes after the Bharatiya Janata Party parted ways with the Shiv Sena.
Congress leaders however feel that the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar was determined to go solo from the very beginning and was not interested in striking an alliance. Mr Pawar has Chief Ministerial ambitions and also has an adversarial relationship with Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan.
After performing better than the Congress in the Lok Sabha, the NCP demanded 144 of the state’s 288 assembly seats. In 2009, it had contested 114. The Congress offered 124 and was prepared to strike a deal at 130 seats.
However on Tuesday, the NCP suddenly demanded that the Chief Minister’s post be shared by rotation for a 2.5 year term. “Demanding the CM’s post by rotation was a clear sign that the NCP was not interested in the alliance,” said a Congress Minister.
The split in the alliance will impact both parties who are already facing major anti-incumbency and the Modi wave which decimated both parties during the Lok Sabha polls. “We would have benefitted by staying together since the saffron camp had split but the NCP was not keen. They probably think they will do better than us,” said a senior Congress leader.
