BJP ousts Maha legislative council chairman Deshmukh with NCP's help

Mumbai: To avoid what its facing at the Centre in Maharashtra’s upper house, the BJP sealed the deal with NCP to dethrone state legislative council chairman and senior Congress leader Shivajirao Deshmukh from the post on Monday. A no confidence motion moved against Deshmukh, by NCP, was passed after 45 members — 28 NCP MLCs, 12 BJP MLCs and others — voted for it. While the Congress with 21 MLCs and one independent opposed the move, Shiv Sena abstained from voting as a mark of protest. [caption id=“attachment_2156951” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] The speculations of growing closeness between both the parties were rife in political circles after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s hometown Baramati on 14 February, 2015 to inaugurate an agro science centre and oversee developmental work being carried out there. Earlier, prior to the Maharashtra state assembly elections in 2014, Modi had termed the NCP as ‘Naturally Corrupt Party’ and had appealed to voters to end dynastic politics by defeating Ajit Pawar. Four months later, NCP is seen hand-in-glove with the BJP in Maharashtra. Sources in the NCP and the BJP said that NCP’s Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar will be nominated for the chairman’s post, while the BJP will get the deputy chairman’s post. In the 78-member legislative council, BJP has only twelve members while Sena has six. The NCP and Congress have 28 and 22 members respectively and the remaining MLCs are either from smaller parties or independents. With the Sena in the government, it would not be a problem for Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in getting bills and budget passed in the state assembly. Now, with the help of the NCP in the upper house, the BJP will not find any difficulties in the legislative council either. Political observers say that the BJP would receive much criticism for supporting the NCP in removing the Deshmukh. Since it is in power in the state and has always criticized the NCP, BJP’s image will take a beating with the recent move, say experts. It may have also to pay for this in future. But, it will also help the BJP keep a check on Shiv Sena, that has opposed the party on several issues and has openly criticised it. Also, BJP’s move of supporting the NCP has widened the rift between BJP and Sena, they say. While defending the party’s decision to move the no-confidence, senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar said that the party was forced to do so because of Deshmukh’s refusal to resign from the post. “But, it does not mean we are aligning with the BJP or have compromised on the principal of secularism. We were the biggest party in the council and what we did was within constitutional limits,” he said adding that the Congress should have asked Deshmukh to resign instead of forcing on voting. The Congress, meanwhile, launched a scathing attack against the NCP for taking help from the BJP. “It seems the NCP is hell bent on getting a position of power in the state and they have compromised on their principles for it. It has exposed the true face of the party which claims to be a secular party,” said Manikrao Thakre, a member of council and former state Congress president. However, Eknath Khadse, senior BJP minister, defended the party’s decision to support the NCP. “It was a part of his party’s ‘Congress mukt bharat’ mission. The Sena had also in the past supported the Congress’ nominees Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee in the presidential elections,” he said. Another BJP cabinet minister said that it was a strong message against Sena’s opposition the the BJP government in Maharashtra. “Now, they should realise that we won’t face any problem if Sena decides to quit the government. It seems that it is trying to create an environment to leave the government ahead of the upcoming Mumbai civic elections,” said the minister.