Maharashtra polls: Sharad Pawar's 'no need' remark flies in the face of Uddhav Thackeray's ambition

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NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said that the chief ministerial candidate of the Maha Vikas Aghadi can be announced later and asserted that there's no immediate need to declare a CM face. The remarks assume significance since Uddhav Thackeray, whose Shiv Sena (UBT) is a part of MVA, has been pressing his allies to declare a chief ministerial face.

In his latest remark, the senior Pawar practically ruled out naming a CM face in the run up to the Maharashtra assembly polls, the dates for which are yet to be announced by the Election Commission.

“Who was face during the Emergency? After the election, Morarji Desai’s name came forward. There is no need to announce the name for the chief minister’s position right now. After the election, we will sit together and decide on the candidate,” he said, according to a News18 report.

The NCP (SP) supremo further said that the candidate will be decided based on which party wins the maximum number of seats in the legislative assembly.

The remarks are not expected to sit well with Shiv Sena (UBT), which is hoping to project Uddhav as the CM face. Uddhav was the chief minister of the previous MVA government, which collapsed following a rebellion by his party leader Eknath Shinde.

Recently, Uddhav met Congress brass during his visit to New Delhi, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. During his meeting, Uddhav reportedly expressed unhappiness over the formula to pick CM from the party which wins the highest number of seats.

According to News18, the former Maharashra chief minister said the system could lead to more conflict among the MVA parties. MVA includes Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP) and Congress.

In fact, Thackeray recently met the top leadership of the Congress in Delhi, including national resident Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, KC Venugopal among others. He said that parties would then start demanding the most number of constituencies during seat-sharing talks to increase their chances of winning.

Earlier, Congress also said that the CM of MVa will be declared only after the Maharashtra assembly elections.

Meanwhile, seat-sharing talks are under way among the MVA parties and a decision is expected soon.

Pawar said that talks among the MVA should also include Peasants and Workers party (PWP), CPI and CPM as well. "These parties have some pockets of influence in the state and they helped the MVA in the Lok Sabha elections," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)