Mumbai (Maharashtra): The purported letter with the signatures of 54 MLAs of NCP, which Ajit Pawar is said to have submitted to the Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, is going to prove to be very crucial in the battle ahead, may it be in the court or inside the assembly.
The Supreme Court has ordered to present the same letter before itself on Monday.
What is in the letter?
There are many speculations what has been written in the letter. Sharad Pawar, in a joint press conference with Uddhav Thackeray, tried to indicate on Saturday that the letter is nothing but a list of MLAs, their addresses and their signatures in the NCP office register or diary.
Pawar suspected that the page contains the list along with a separate covering letter signed by Ajit Pawar might have been given to the Governor.
NCP and Sharad Pawar are claiming that this so-called letter is invalid as it does not contain any resolution to give powers to Ajit Pawar to decide to support the BJP.
The BJP leaders, on the other hand, are quite confident that technically they are on a better footing. But exactly how and why is still not clear.
Hence, the letter is going to be very crucial not just tomorrow but all the ensuing legal and legislative battles.
Also read: 'Maha' political crisis: BJP will get "befitting reply" in floor test says Congress
Channels still open-
Even when Ajit Pawar has openly rebelled against Sharad Pawar and put his uncle's credibility in jeopardy the NCP and the Pawar family has not completely ditched Ajit Pawar.
On Saturday, Ajit Pawar was expelled as a leader of the NCP assembly leader. Prior to this, three NCP leader Dilip Walse Patil, Hasan Mushrif and Jayant Patil met Ajit, where he was putting up since morning after taking oath as a deputy chief minister. Dilip Walase is an old friend of Ajit Pawar and comes from the same district as Ajit, Pune.
In between Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar and cousin of Ajit, sent him a message to resign and come back to the NCP fold. Ajit's nephew and youngest MLA from Pawar family Rohit Pawar also published an old photograph of a family and urged Ajit Pawar in an emotional way to come back.
On Sunday these efforts continued. The NCP state president Jayant Patil again went to Ajit Pawar and tried convincing him for about two hours. But these efforts seem to have failed again as, immediately after this meeting, Ajit Pawar tweeted and expressed gratitude towards PM Modi and other BJP leaders giving a clear indication that he is not in a mood to return.
The New Renaissance-
The NCP has kept its MLAs in the Hotel Renaissance in Powai. Incidentally, it was the same hotel where the BJP had kept the rebel Karnataka Congress MLAs a few months ago. And many would remember that the Congress leader DK Shivkumar has staged a Dharana agitation for not allowing him to meet his own party colleagues.
All the MLAs including state president Jayant Patil are holed up in the hotel. Sunday remained a very busy day here. Once the court decision from Delhi was out, Sharad Pawar went to the Hotel and spent the rest of the day.
In the morning he first held a meeting with the MLAs. In his usual forthright way, Pawar asked his colleagues whether they are facing any problems or receiving any calls. Upon this, some of the MLAs are said to have informed that there had been some attempts to contact them from different persons. Pawar asked them not to worry, keep united and assured them that ultimately NCP will win the battle.
Later Uddhav Thackeray and Sena leaders also came to the hotel and met the NCP MLAs. Uddhav assured them all that the proposed alliance between NCP and Sena is going to be a long term affair. He appealed them to be united and do not fear anybody.
Incidentally, Sena activists and leaders from Mumbai have taken upon themselves the task of protecting the NCP MLAs. These Sena leaders, many of them councillors, were seen standing outside the hotel all through the day and are also likely to be there through the night. In fact, yesterday, two of the NCP MLAs, who are said to be close to Ajit Pawar, were spotted and almost caught by the Sena ex-minister Eknath Shinde and Milind Narvekar, who is PA to Uddhav Thackeray at the domestic airport. These MLAs were brought to the NCP leaders in south Mumbai late evening. Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray also held a closed-door meeting for a very long time in the Renaissance.
Late in the evening, the NCP leaders realised that the five-star hotel is unsafe as anybody from Ajit Pawar or the BJP can come and stay or meet the NCP MLAs easily in the restaurants. Hence it was decided to shift the MLAs to some safer place, preferably in the neighbouring Thane district, which is supposed to be the stronghold of Shiv Sena.
Also read: 'Maha' political crisis: Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena arrive at Raj Bhavan to meet Guv
The BJP Show-
The BJP organised a meeting of its MLAs in Dadar's party office. The CM Devendra Fadnavis and all the top leaders who were present were quite cheerful and assured their legislators that the party is in a position to prove the majority very comfortably. Most of the MLAs were completely in the dark when Devendra and Ajit Pawar took oath on Saturday. All of them were equally shocked as the rest of the people. But the BJP is a disciplined party nobody would show the shock outside.
But it was essential for the leaders to explain to the MLAs how joining hands with the same Ajit Pawar Pawar whom all the BJP leadership called a most corrupt and always said that his real place in the Arthur Road Jail, had become imperative. It was told that Shiv Sena has done the biggest treachery and hence in the interest of the people this government is being formed.
The Number Game-
In the 288 member Maharashtra Assembly, the magic figure is 145. The BJP is the single largest party with 105 MLAs. It claims to have a support of 14 more, who are independents or from smaller parties.
They still need 26 more. BJP hopes that Ajit Pawar would be able to fetch them with him. In fact, BJP leaders are claiming that almost entire NCP with 54 MLAs will be on its side. Will it be merely on the technical ground or are there some more things happening behind the curtains is worth guessing guess.
On the other hand, NCP leaders claim 50 out of 54 MLAs are with them. Reportedly, they say that most of them are in the Mumbai Hotel. Only a few of them ( the leaders are conveniently ambiguous about the exact number) are still out of Mumbai.
Both Shiv Sena (56) and Congress (44) claim that their flock is intact and all of them are together. All these three parties are claiming support of about 15 to 20 more MLAs from smaller parties and independents. If we add all these numbers the Cong-NCP-Sena trio seems to have a majority.
Ajit Pawar's new game
By evening, Ajit Pawar released a flurry of tweets. Initially, he thanked all the BJP leaders including PM Modi and assured them he will work toward giving a stable government.
Later he fired a new salvo. He said that he is in NCP and will remain so. He also said that the NCP-BJP alliance will give a stable government to the state. He also said that Sharad Pawar is his leader and will remain so.
Ajit Pawar is clearly trying to confuse the NCP MLAs and activists. And he has learnt all this from his uncle, who had given unconditional support to the Devendra government surprising everybody. And last week, even when the talks about the Cong-NCP-Sena alliance were going on Sharad Pawar had met PM Modi for 45 minutes creating confusion.
Secondly, by mentioning that he is still with NCP, Ajit Pawar is trying to build up a legal argument that he is the leader of the NCP legislative party and he has not defected from it. Instead, all the MLAs have given him the power to support any dispensation and accordingly, he has gone with the BJP.
Clearly the battle is going to be very long and will be fought in the assembly as well as in the court very bitterly.
Also read: 'Maha' floor test: SC reserves order for tomorrow 10:30 am
