‘Cong will negotiate only with Uddhav, Sharad Pawar’: Chavan
New Delhi: The Congress will discuss alliance matters only with Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Uddhav Thackeray and NCP (SP)’s Sharad Pawar, and leave the decision on a “sub-alliance” to them, former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has said amid speculation that the Thackeray cousins and the NCP factions
may join hands.
Chavan, however, made it clear that if the NCP merger happens and if that party goes with the NDA, it would become difficult for the Congress to continue the alliance with them in Maharashtra.
In an interview, he dubbed the talk of coming together of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) as a “family matter”.
“If we go in an alliance (in the local body polls), we will have a seat sharing with the leaders of the alliance partners, that is Mr Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Mr Sharad Pawar of the NCP (SP). Now, with whom they do a sub-alliance is entirely their situation,” Chavan, a senior Congress leader, said
“If the person is completely against the values that the Congress stands for, then we will raise some objections; otherwise, it is an internal family matter and how they do seat adjustments in case we go with an alliance (in the local body polls),” he said.
Asked specifically about Raj Thackeray, Chavan said: “Our experience is that he is a senior leader in Maharashtra politics. He is a big crowd puller; whenever he has a public meeting, there are huge crowds. But that doesn’t get translated into votes, and that is why he has no presence in the current Maharashtra Assembly.”
There is a view that former Shiv Sena votes will combine together and they may get some benefit, he said on the positives of the Thackeray cousins coming together. “We will only negotiate with Mr Uddhav Thackeray and Mr Sharad Pawar,” Chavan asserted.
For the first time in 20 years, estranged cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray will share the stage on July 5 at a joint “victory” rally organised by the Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS to celebrate the rollback of the contentious government resolutions (GRs) on the three-language policy. The paries on Tuesday issued a joint public invitation for the “Marathi Vijay Diwas”.
