Mumbai:
Are the wheels really coming off the Maha Vikas Aghadi wagon? It seems so after 23 of the Maharashtra opposition alliance’s 60 MLAs – including Nationalist Congress Party boss Sharad Pawar and his senior leader Jayant Patil, both reportedly unavailable due to personal reasons – skipped a Wednesday evening strategy meeting. And They weren’t the only big names.
Reports indicate Congress leaders Nana Patole and Vijay Wadettiwar were not present. The latter’s office said he was unwell. The Congress’ state unit chief, Harshwardhan Sapkal, and Thackeray Sena troubleshooter Sanjay Raut did attend.
Add to this last week’s rebellion – six MPs from Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction joined the rival Sena group led by Eknath Shinde – and many feel the end seems near for the MVA.
“Are we truly together?” Thackeray asked in anguish.
On his MPs revolt – the second time in four years the ex-chief minister’s party has been thus broken up – he urged his leaders and the alliance to “focus on those who are with us”. “Those who have left… let them go,” he said.
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Thackeray then struck a defiant note. “As the MVA we are a major force,” he said, calling on members to work together, and hold joint meetings and rallies to project unity despite losses. The cornered Sena leader continued: “We say we are together… but are we truly together? Are we united as the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the House? Do we raise issues together?”
The issue of the six rebel MPs was not discussed at this meet, NDTV was told.
The six Thackeray Sena rebels with Eknath Shinde
Instead, the meeting was to chalk out battle plans for the monsoon session that began three days ago.
But if the timing – days after six Sena MPs swapped Thackeray for Shinde and the MVA for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance – was a test, many seem to have failed. As of now there are no reports of another rebellion. But the original Sena revolt – in June 2022 – was followed by another, almost identical in thought and execution, in the NCP in June 2023.
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Formed in November 2019, the MVA has never really shaken lingering doubts over its stability despite having survived seven years, three major elections, and as many revolts.
Observers were aghast then over an alliance between two apparently discordant ideologies; on one hand were the Congress and Pawar’s NCP, and on the other the Sena and its hardline Hindu beliefs. Critics pointed to the political circumstances of the union – the 2019 Assembly election and the Sena breaking up with the BJP over failed power-sharing talks.
The then-undivided Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party won that election comfortably.
But then Uddhav Thackeray made a play for the chief minister’s chair, confident the Sena’s 56 seats meant the BJP – 40 short of majority – would give in to at least to sharing the top job. The BJP did not. A miffed Sena walked away. And the Congress and NCP picked up on a chance to keep the saffron party out of power in India’s richest state by Gross Domestic Product.
That has been pointed out by critics – that the MVA represents opportunistic politics.
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Of course, this isn’t wrong. Coalitions are cobbled together for various reasons, as the BJP knows; in fact, its Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis made that point in April 2024. “We have to live with this reality – that of coalition politics.”
But somehow the MVA always seemed to have that question mark over its staying power, particularly after June 2022. Now, four years on, a second split – which the Thackeray camp claims was also a Shinde special – could be the end of the bloc.
