Though the reverberations of Sharad Pawar’s shock decision to step down as national president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were felt among his allies in the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress said that there was no reason to believe the MVA was in danger because of Mr. Pawar’s decision.
The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena camp, on the other hand, claimed that the MVA’s very existence was now “in peril”, adding that the NCP was “welcome” to join the ruling alliance if they adhered to its ideology.
A discordant note was struck within the MVA by senior Congressman and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who said that while the NCP cadre were importuning Mr. Pawar to reconsider his decision, it was also true that some senior NCP leaders had been in touch with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
