The press conference organised by the United Opposition parties in Maharashtra was given a miss by the NCP which chose to conduct its own separate conference on Sunday. This supposed snub by the NCP has let many to speculate about the unity of the ”united opposition”.
This press conference was conceptualised by the opposition parties in order to discuss strategies for cornering the Devendra Fadnavis government during the monsoon session of the Maharashtra assembly. The press conference of the united opposition was held at the residence of Leader of Opposition (LOP) Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil.
When asked about the reason for NCP absence, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil stated that the NCP wanted to address some other issues, hence it chose to go ahead with a different conference. He also reiterated that all was well between the ”united opposition”.
The NCP state chief Sunil Tatkare on the other hand was singing a completely different tune. According to Tatkare there was no communication from the Congress party about how to conduct the assembly session and had chosen to directly communicate with the Assembly speaker without bringing the NCP into the loop. This led to them holding a separate conference.
The opposition including the NCP though were united in boycotting a tea party which had been organised by Devendra Fadnavis which led to it planning the press conference in the first place. According to Fadnavis, it was the first time he had seen the opposition getting split and organising 2 different conferences.
The press conference of the opposition parties saw them taking an unanimous decision to corner the government on loan waiver and malnutrition. The opposition also attacked the Shiv Sena by calling it an FM radio among other things. It isn’t clear whether they were trolling Sena over the RJ fiasco it has chosen to embroil itself into.
This is the second time in recent days when there have been allegations about the NCP distancing itself from the opposition. A section of the media had reported that the NCP MP and MLAs had decided to rebel and vote for Ram Nath Kovind in the Presidential elections. This was refuted by the party and our data analysis of the cross voting too didn’t show any signs of the allegations being true.
