Will fresh crisis worsen tensions within MVA? | Economic Times

Param Bir Singh’s letter to CM Uddhav Thackeray is an indication that the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi regime, barely 16 months in office, is hurtling from one crisis to another, gravely affecting Maharashtra’s political stability and credibility, said observers. Worse, the MVA’s principal dramatis personae displayed poor political skills over the last two weeks when the Sachin Waze case blew up in the face of the Thackeray government, they added.Not only has Singh, throwing all caution to the wind, accused Deshmukh of corruption, he has pointed out that he had briefed Thackeray and NCP president Sharad Pawar on the home minister’s “misdeeds and malpractices.” 81610295 Observers said the developments might increase differences between the NCP and Shiv Sena over how to tackle the situation arising out of the car explosives case.An NCP politician said Saamna had praised Singh for having taken over as CP during the “difficult times” of Covid-19. “Singh’s transfer doesn’t mean he is an accused,” Saamna had noted.Opinion: Sachin Vaze shows how shooting stars burn outSena wants its allies, NCP and Congress, to stand by Thackeray. Sources in Sena recalled that the party was left to fend for itself when its senior minister Sanjay Rathod was in the eye of a storm following the suspicious death of a Pune girl last month. 81609259In the Waze case too, Sena was seen putting up a lonely fight against Devendra Fadnavis’s onslaught on the MVA regime in the assembly.A Sena functionary said the NCP can’t “wash its hands of the Waze episode” as the party handles the home portfolio. However, the NCP is unwilling to, as one of its leaders said, “share the Sena’s muck.” “If tensions in the MVA escalate, it could trigger the MVA regime’s downhill trundle,” said a former bureaucrat and added the Singh letter could widen the Sena-NCP rift in the weeks to come.The Sena was upset when Pawar retained Deshmukh as home minister, thus making it clear that l’affaire Waze was Sena’s worry. 81609429However, both Sena and NCP committed quite a few follies, said political analysts. First, Thackeray remained absent during a stormy discussion on the Antilia case in the assembly. The CM asked a senior Sena minister to represent the party at a meeting held in the office of the deputy speaker, who was keen to quell the acrimony in the house, it is learnt. As leader of the assembly, Thackeray should have taken the initiative to restore peace in the house, said a Vidhan Bhavan expert.Second, not only was the CM adamant on not suspending Waze, he indicated he was going soft on him by saying Waze was not Osama bin Laden. This sparked unrest among NCP ministers. 81609319 Deshmukh added salt to Sena’s wound by remarking Singh’s transfer was owing to serious lapses in the explosives case probe. Sena-NCP equations became fragile when Sharad Pawar didn’t endorse Sena’s stand that NIA was impinging on the state’s autonomy by initiating a probe into the Antilia scare row.