Will BJP seize the opportunity? Fadnavis meets Nadda to discuss Maharashtra crisis

PTI, Jun 28, 2022, 5:52 PM IST

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Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis met BJP president J P Nadda here on Tuesday amid the spiralling political crisis in the state threatening the three-party Maha Vikas Adhadi government’s existence.

Fadnavis is believed to have briefed Nadda about the unfolding political developments in the western state.

He arrived in the national capital earlier to discuss the issue with the party’s top brass, with 39 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs and at least 10 independent legislators from the state lodged in a five-star hotel in Assam and working on overdrive to bring down the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led government.

The BJP has denied any role in the rebellion but Fadnavis is being seen to be playing a key role in working out a post-MVA dispensation which he may head with support from the Sena rebels.

Senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar on Tuesday suggested that the saffron party is waiting for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to declare that they don’t have the numbers.

He reiterated that the BJP is in a wait-and-watch mode and that it does not need to prove a majority on the floor of the House as of now.

The political crisis triggered by Shiv Sena rebel Eknath Shinde’s rebellion with a majority of MLAs of his party entered the next phase with the Supreme Court on Monday keeping in abeyance the disqualification proceedings of 16 rebels before the Deputy Speaker till July 11 and also refusing to pass any interim order on the state government’s plea that there should not be any floor test in the Assembly.

Speaking to reporters at the Nagpur airport, Mungantiwar said, “We have decided to wait and watch. Considering the present situation, a core team will be formed in the coming days, which will deliberate on the subject and then a decision will be taken.”

The former finance minister further said that the BJP does not need to prove the majority as of now.

“The party is now waiting to see when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance will declare that it is in minority (that they lacked numbers in House)”.

Asked if BJP MLAs from the Vidarbha region will be herded to Mumbai after holding a meeting of legislators in Nagpur, Mungantiwar maintained that he had not come to take the MLAs to Mumbai, and it was an organisational meeting to discuss ways to take welfare schemes launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to people.

Talking about the Maharashtra crisis, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya on Tuesday said his party was watching the turmoil in the ruling Shiv Sena from a distance.

The main constituent of the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the neighbouring state plunged into disarray on June 21 after senior leader Eknath Shinde rebelled against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and was now in Guwahati with a sizable number of dissidents.

“We have no role in the current turmoil in Maharashtra. This (rebellion) is internal strife of the Shiv Sena. We are just standing at a distance and watching it,” Vijayvargiya told reporters.

Speaking about reports of Sainiks loyal to Thackeray attacking offices of rebel MLAs, he said efforts were being made to create a “West Bengal like situation” in Maharashtra by spreading fear and terror.

Vijayvargiya, who was one of the key strategists for the BJP for the WB polls, added that people of Maharashtra would not want the state to fall prey to anarchy.