Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale said on Wednesday that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government could fall any time over differences on the handling of the Bhima-Koregaon and Elgaar Parishad cases.

The Republican Party of India (RPI) chief said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray should reconsider his decision to join the MVA and shake hands with the BJP-RPI coalition he was part of earlier.

“With repeated controversies and complications arising out of this issue [Bhima-Koregoan], it would be difficult for honourable Uddhavji to run the government. Now is the right time for him to abandon the support of Congress and NCP, and establish a government with the support of the BJP/RPI instead,” Mr. Athawale said.

The RPI chief had earlier this week hailed Mr. Thackeray for reportedly agreeing to hand over Bhima-Koregaon/Elgaar Parishad files to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The difference of opinion on this issue between the three alliance parties — Shiv Sena, Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party — has caused a deep rift that cannot be repaired any longer, Mr. Athawale claimed.

A former coalition partner of the Shiv Sena, the Union Minister said the Centre has the authority to push the NIA to take over inquiry into the cases. However, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge have publicly opposed the handing over of the cases to the NIA. But the final decision must be taken by the CM and it was not appropriate for the NCP and Congress leaders to publicly declare their opposition, Mr. Athawale said. “The MVA government should hold an internal meeting and deliberate its decisions. It is not appropriate to argue publicly. Public opposition by NCP and Congress over decision to give NIA inquiry of these cases, is not correct. If such disputes continue, it will be difficult for Uddhav Thackeray to run the government,” he said.

This is not the first time that the RPI chief has predicted a political ‘earthquake’ in the State following the formation of the MVA government. In December last year, he said the three-party government would collapse over differences on Veer Savarkar between Congress and the Sena.

Fellowship programme

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has in a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, said the State government’s decision to scrap the Chief Minister’s Fellowship Programme has sent a wrong a message to the youth. He said Mr. Thackeray must reconstitute the fellowship under which dozens of qualified students were offered internship to work in the CMO on a monthly stipend. But the fellowship was discontinued by the MVA government.