Maharashtra LoP: Congress has decided to resort to a ‘wait and watch’ approach on the issue of the appointment of the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, amid the developments in the state, a senior leader said on Tuesday (July 4).
The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting was held today at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai in which Congress vowed to strengthen the party as well as the Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising itself, NCP (now Sharad Pawar faction), and Shiv Sena (UBT).
It was earlier said that Congress might hold discussions on the issue of claiming the post of the LoP after Ajit Pawar, who previously held the position before switching sides to join the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government on Sunday.
Notably, the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP has appointed party MLA Jitendra Awhad as the LoP.
Sharad Pawar on Monday said the Congress was justified in claiming the post of LoP.
What did the leaders say after the meeting?
In the meeting today, AICC incharge of Maharashtra HK Patil and 39 out of 45 MLAs including CLP leader Balasaheb Thorat participated.
"We will strengthen the MVA and the Congress. We have supported Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar. We will wait and watch how developments unfold in the coming days," said HK Patil.
He said that there were no discussions on the post of the LoP. Patil said that his party will work to bring the issues of the people to the fore and stay united to fight against the BJP.
Ajit Pawar joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government on Sunday as deputy chief minister while eight other NCP MLAs took oath as ministers.
The NCP has 53 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly.
What happened so far?
The turbulence in the Maharashtra political turf is ceasing to ease as Monday (July 3) remained a politically charged day, following Ajit Pawar’s surprising move of jumping the ship from being the Leader of the Opposition a night ago to a Deputy Chief Minister. After Ajit’s massive move which brought NCP to the pitch of the factionalism game (Pawar vs Pawar) gave a flashback of the Sena vs Sena episode not too long ago which made the headlines last year. Both factions (Sharad Pawar and Ajit) will hold separate meetings on Wednesday.
A day after Ajit Pawar was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra in the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government, Sharad Pawar sacked NCP’s working president Praful Patel and general secretary and treasurer Sunil Tatkare who supported Ajit in his rebellion, for their ‘anti-party’ activities.
Retorting to the party supremo’s move, the Ajit Pawar camp removed state NCP president Jayant Patil while also announcing new appointments. The side appointed Tatkare as the Maharashtra NCP president in place of Patil. They also asked the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker to disqualify Jayant Patil and Jitendra Awhad from membership of the House.
(With PTI inputs)
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