It has only been a year and there are visible cracks appearing in the Maha Aghadi Government in Maharashtra. The Mumbai Congress has reportedly written to the party president Sonia Gandhi complaining about how the party is being sidelined in the Maharashtra MVA government led by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
“Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is weakening the Congress party like termites weaken wood”, Mumbai Congress general secretary Vishwabandhu Rai who is considered close to Sanjay Nirupam, has said in the letter to Sonia Gandhi.
Congress remains to be a mere ally in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra
Hinting that the role of the Congress in the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance government in the state of Maharashtra has been that of a mere bystander, Vishwabandhu Rai stated in his letter that Congress has remained an ally in the one year of Maha Aghadi government in Maharashtra, while Shiv Sena and NCP are seen in the role of running the government.
“A large number of Congress ministers in Maharashtra government are not getting any work of the organisation at the grassroots level while the general public and party workers do not know the department of its party’s ministers,” read the letter. “Our allies are hurting our party by making thoughtful strategy and are engaged in advancing their own party. We are failing to stop this,” Rai told Sonia Gandhi.
Some necessary concrete steps are needed to prevent migration from the party: Mumbai Congress to Sonia Gandhi
Alleging that no concrete steps are being taken to fulfil the promises made by the Congress party in its 2019 Election manifesto, Rai furthered: “Some necessary concrete steps are needed to prevent migration from the party. It is also necessary to instruct the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party to follow the coalition ‘dharma’.”
For the unversed, it was almost a year back in November 2019, when Shiv Sena made the first overture of stitching together an unlikely alliance with ideologically disparate political parties of NCP and Congress, only to keep BJP at bay and acquire the CM’s chair. However, in this one year, many Congress leaders have expressed their dismay over this unusual alliance.
Sonia Gandhi sceptical about the alliance in Maharashtra: Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat
Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat had said that Shiv Sena initiated the alliance with Congress in Maharashtra to keep BJP out of power. He also claimed that interim President Sonia Gandhi wasn’t particularly inclined to have an alliance with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra but when the likelihood of another BJP regime in the state was weighed against the coalition government between the two parties, she acceded.
Congress snubs Shiv Sena, asks them to back off
Recently also when Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut exhorted the UPA parties to come together against the Modi government, Congress had snubbed the Shiv Sena, stating that the party was not a part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and its association with the Shiv Sena was limited only to Maharashtra.
