Mumbai: There is no threat to the Shinde government even if the Supreme Court verdict goes against it, sources close to power in Maharashtra have claimed.
Speculation has been rife for the past few days that the NCP leader Ajit Pawar might break away, along with a chunk of MLAs, and join the government. The buzz is that Ajit Pawar called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the wee hours of Sunday to discuss a possible tie-up with the BJP and, later in the day, he flew down to Nagpur to take part in an anti-BJP rally of the MVA. But he did not address it.
Government is stable and there is no threat even after SC's verdict
It was being speculated whether the Shinde government in the state would have to step down in the event of the Supreme Court disqualifying the members of the Shinde faction. However, a senior CMO official who spoke to the FPJ claimed that the government was stable and there was no threat to it even if the SC were to rule the disqualification of 16 MLAs supporting the CM.
The Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud, is expected to give its verdict primarily on four issues – whether a split within a political party is same as defection; whether a rebellion by Eknath Shinde and other MLAs against former CM Uddhav Thackeray amounts to defection; can the Shinde faction be subject to disqualification proceedings under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution and whether this split within the Shiv Sena was an exercise of inner-party democracy or the ‘constitutional sin’ of defection. The worst-case scenario would mean disqualification of 16 MLAs. But that won’t affect the stability of the government, as currently, the government enjoys the support of around 165 MLAs and it will continue to be supported by 149 MLAs, even after the disqualification of 16 MLAs.
Also, in such an event, the half-way mark in the assembly too would come down to 137, the CMO official pointed out.
What did Ajit Pawar say on the issue?
Ajit Pawar, who was grilled by journalists at Nagpur on Sunday for not addressing the MVA rally in the city, too had said that the numbers wouldn’t be in favour of the opposition even if the SC were to disqualify the defecting MLAs.
Once again on Monday, Ajit Pawar set tongues wagging after being incommunicado for some time around noon. Two senior state BJP leaders, Chandrakant Bawankule and Ashish Shelar, had left for Delhi around the same time, while several NCP MLAs, including Pimpri MLA Anna Bansod and Beed MLA Dhananjay Munde had set off for Mumbai around the same time. Bansod told reporters he was headed to a meeting of party MLAs in Mumbai. However, Ajit Pawar later clarified that no meeting of the MLAs had been convened and that he was resting after a tiring midnight journey from Nagpur to Mumbai and his visit to a Panvel hospital in the wee hours of Monday to meet the survivors of the heatstroke tragedy in Kharghar.
Bawankule, meanwhile, has said that his party is open to anyone who follows the party ideology, in a clear indication that Ajit Pawar, who had joined hands with the BJP in November 2019, to form a government that lasted for 80 hours, was welcome.
