Maharashtra govt formation: Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine took far too long to reach consensus, should introspect rather than blame BJP

The political drama in Maharashtra has entered its second season. Starting from the sudden midnight swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar as Chief Minister and deputy Chief Minister, respectively to the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine knocking on the gates of Supreme Court to deliberate over the case, an apparent split had taken place within the Nationalist Congress Party with a majority of its elected MLAs reporting to the party patriarch Sharad Pawar.

While the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine felt cheated at the haste with which the Governor invited BJP to form the government and even administered oath to Fadnavis and Pawar, it is important to note that one of these parties must take the onus that they were unable to form a government even after a month since the Maharashtra Assembly election results were announced.

It was Shiv Sena that had played out the first act of the drama when it got into a stalemate with its ally of 35 years — the BJP — over power-sharing deal. The “junior” ally split from NDA after consensus over 50-50 power-sharing deal did not end conclusively. Denying any such pre-poll arrangement, BJP refused to relent and the long friendship came apart.

Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress took long to reach a consensus on forming the coalition government. The dilly-dallying left the field open for the BJP to move in and strike. After all, BJP continues to be the single largest party in Maharashtra with 105 seats in the 288-member Assembly, followed by Shiv Sena with 56 seats, NCP with 54 and Congress with 44 seats.

It would have been puerile for Sena-NCP-Cong alliance to assume BJP would wait on the sidelines and let the opportunity to get back into power in the state pass without exploring all possibilities. Ajit Pawar seemed to give Fadnavis that very opportunity that the BJP was looking for on Saturday.

“Shiv Sena’s assessment that Amit Shah was reluctant to crown Devendra Fadnavis proved costly. Once a decision for Uddhav Thackeray (as proposed CM) was taken by three parties (Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress), they should have approached the governor. Sena failed to read anything out of Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari’s absence from the ongoing Governors’ conclave at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi,” political commentator Rasheed Kidwai told Firstpost.

While the NCP and Congress may have agreed to join hands with Shiv Sena to ensure BJP stayed out of power, the dilly-dallying and loss of time over shaping of the coalition betrayed lack of conviction on part of both the NCP and the Congress. The latter, especially, would have had to compromise on its core ideology by joining hands with Shiv Sena.

Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress failed to reach out to the Governor with required letters of support, resulting in the imposition of the President’s Rule.

Shiv Sena MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut posted a cryptic tweet on Saturday, “Jiss jiss par yeh jag hansa hai, usi ne itihaas racha hai” (Those who became the laughing stock, created history). He didn’t anticipate that within an hour of his tweet, things would change dramatically on ground.

Even after the Sena broke its ties with the NDA, Raut wrote to Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu complaining that his seating in the Rajya Sabha had been changed to “humiliate” him and “deliberately hurt sentiment and suppress our voice”. The Shiv Sena accused the ruling BJP — its estranged ally, of shifting its seats in Parliament from third row to fifth row after their acrimonious split over the Maharashtra power tussle.

Given the pace with which developments are unfolding in Maharashtra, it remains to be seen who will ultimately create history in the state.