Maharashtra is heading towards political uncertainty as four major players the Shiv Sena, the BJP, the Congress and the NCP are sending a clear message to each other that new permutations and combinations are possible if their old “ideological” alliance breaks on the seat sharing issue. The state is going to polls on October 15.
While the BJP is pushing the Shiv Sena to the wall suggesting that the latter is ceased to be its senior ally in the state, the NCP is projecting itself as an equal to the Congress after the Lok Sabha elections.
The Shiv Sena-BJP have been fighting the Lok Sabha and the state Assembly polls together since 1989 after creating a Hindu vote bank while the Congress-NCP came together to check the “communal” (Shiv Sena-BJP) forces from coming to power since 1999.
Now, ideological issues are taking a back seat as each of them among the four, has been fighting for the battle of space. The Congress, which has become weak after the debacle, is confident of becoming the main Opposition in the state Assembly, insiders said.
“Earlier, we were expecting to get 40 Assembly seats in an alliance with the NCP but if we go alone, then we can win 60 seats. We should sit in the Opposition and revive the party,” they said.
But a Central Congress leader said a break in the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance will be an advantage. However, the NCP is playing its cards shrewdly after realising that “power has become the ideology in the upcoming elections”.
In Maharashra, no single party between the Congress, the NCP, the Shiv Sena and the BJP is in a position to get 145 of the total 288 Assembly seats on its own and thus form a government.
If these four parties fight the polls seperately under different pretext, then new permutations and combinations could be possible after the elections.