It will be a Sena-NCP-Congress govt for 5 years, says Sharad Pawar

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Updated: Jul 27, 2020 20:56 IST

The Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar asserted on Friday the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress will jointly form a stable government in Maharashtra soon and ruled out any probability of mid-term elections in the state.

Sharad Pawar, who was on a visit to Nagpur to take stock of the damage to crops after unseasonal rains, dismissed any threat to the new political alliance after the BJP failed to submit its claim of forming a government.

“Right now there is a process going on and today or tomorrow the government will be formed. We will ensure that the government is there for five years. Our negotiations are going on,” Pawar said during a media interaction.

The veteran leader also said that President’s Rule would not continue for long and no fresh elections will be held.

“The government would be stable, development-oriented, and that solves peoples’ problems. We all want this to happen,” he added.

Watch l ‘Government formation process underway, will last 5 years’: Sharad Pawar

Sharad Pawar also indicated that they are considering the Shiv Sena’s demand for the chief minister position in the new government.

“If someone is asking for the CM’s post then it would be considered,” the NCP chief said responding to a query.

Earlier, the chief of the NCP’s Mumbai unit Nawab Malik had also said that the next chief minister will be from Sena.

“The next chief minister will be from Sena as it is our responsibility to ensure the self-respect of the party [Shiv Sena] that has left its old alliance. Whether Congress will be part of the government or will extend outside support will be decided soon,” Nawab Malik had said.

Pawar also taunted former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for his statement that there will be no government besides the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) and even if some other party comes to power, it will fail in six months.

“In my head, I keep hearing his earlier statement that ‘I will come back, I will come back’. I know him for a few years but I didn’t know he was an astrologer,” said the NCP supremo.

Answering a question on radical Hindutva plank that the Shiv Sena follows, Pawar said the NCP and Congress have always adhered the secular ideology and while running the government they follow the same principles.

“It is true that the NCP and Congress are secular but we are not against either Islam or Hinduism. When we run the government, we do insist that it should run on secularism,” Pawar said.

Maharashtra on Tuesday came under President’s rule after no party could show they had the required numbers to form a government, even after 19 days of the assembly polls.

The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress are now exploring possibilities of forming an unusual alliance to form the government in the state.

A joint coordination committee of all the three parties has prepared a draft of a common minimum programme based on which they are likely to come together.

Talks over the modalities of power-sharing are also on between the three parties.

The process to form the government is expected to gain momentum after Sunday when NCP chief Sharad Pawar is expected to meet Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi.

Gandhi and Pawar, leaders privy to the developments have said, are likely to meet Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray soon after the scheduled meeting between first two leaders.

It is likely to be a crucial meeting that can put the final stamp of agreement on the power-sharing formula among the three parties.