In the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi alliance enjoys the support of 170 legislators, including 56 members from the Sena, 54 from NCP, 44 from Congress, and some smaller parties. The BJP has 105 seats and claims the support of 13 other legislators. The boat can be rocked any time by encouraging defection.

Though Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took over in November last, he is yet to settle down because of various reasons. The first is the nature of the coalition, which he is currently heading. It is an unnatural coalition as there is nothing common between his party the Shiv Sena and the partners, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party. It was an opportunistic coalition and the main reason for coming together was to prevent the BJP from coming to power.

The second and more important is the inexperience of the incumbent Chief Minister in administration. Maharashtra is a big state and Mumbai is the financial capital of the country. Before he could come to grips, Uddhav’s image took a beating with the Covid outbreak, though it is a fact that he had not got the time to settle down. His inexperience was seen at the way he handled the migrant crisis and he is still learning the tough task of governance. He did not chalk out a proper Covid strategy with the result today Maharashtra tops the number of Covid cases and it is growing. Uddhav even faced a crisis regarding his election to the legislature and he managed to get elected only after his SOS to Prime Minister Modi last month. It is not clear why he did not take the help of the experienced state Congress leaders, or the NCP chief Sharad Pawar in tackling the pandemic.

Thirdly, Uddhav is facing trouble not only from outside but also from within the coalition. For instance the Congress is demanding its pound of flesh at every step. It is clear from the way the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a media conference recently remarked that though the Congress was part of "Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi" and holds key ministries, “he would like to make a differentiation here. We are supporting the government in Maharashtra, but we are not the key decision maker in Maharashtra. We are the key decision maker in Punjab; we are the key decision maker in Chhattisgarh, in Rajasthan, in Puducherry. So, there is a difference between running a government and supporting a government.” The local party leaders complain that CM Uddhav has not been consulting them. According to them, during the formation of the Uddhav government, the Congress got portfolios considering its strength in the State Assembly. It was also decided that the Legislative Council seats and corporations would be given in equal share in the three parties of the MVA government. However, things are not going as per the discussion.

Fourthly, the role of the NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who was instrumental in the formation of Uddhav government, is intriguing. Eyebrows were raised at his recent meeting amidst political instability with the Governor B S Hoshyari, the first since the Governor took over. Pawar’s meeting is interesting as it came in the wake of the demand from the state BJP leaders for imposition President’s rule, including former chief ministers Narayan Rane and Devendra Fadnavis who met the governor last week. Both the Raj Bhavan and the Pawar camp described it as a “courtesy call”. Pawar is considered to be one of the ablest chief ministers in the country. There is barely any evidence of Uddhav consulting his partners and his cabinet colleagues on a regular basis. It is the babus who are said to be running the show currently.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Uddhav Thackeray has not been allowed to settle down either by his coalition partners, or the main opposition the BJP. Though Uddhav managed to keep the Sena afloat after the death of its founder Balasaheb Thackeray all these years, running a government is different and this is where he needs to strengthen himself. He needs good advisers. The other players also should realize that this is not the time for toppling games as the first priority should be tackling the Covid outbreak and politics can wait. After all, people elect them as their representatives and they cannot fail the public interests. (IPA Service)