Days after the completion of one year in power, differences among ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners have surfaced today. Congress party, which is a junior partner in the Shiv Sena led government, has taken a strong objection against NCP Chief Sharad Pawar’s statement on the former president Rahul Gandhi.
Pawar in an interview to a Marathi daily had said that Congress MP Rahul Gandhi appeared to lack consistency when it came to the question of being accepted as a leader by the country. When asked if the country was ready to accept Rahul Gandhi as the leader, Pawar had said, "There are some questions in this regard. There seems to be less consistency." He, however, took exception to former US President Barack Obama's unflattering comments about the Congress leader.
However, state Congress working president and minister of woman and child welfare Yashomati Thakur expressed serious displeasure over Pawar’s statement on Rahul Gandhi. Without naming Pawar, the minister said the alliance partners must stop commenting on the leadership of the Congress if they wanted a stable government in Maharashtra.
"Our leadership is very strong and stable. The formation of MVA is a result of our strong belief in democratic values. I must appeal to colleagues in MVA if you want a stable government in Maharashtra, then stop commenting on leadership of Congress. Everybody should follow basic rules of coalition," she said in her tweet.
NCP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase reacted to Thakur’s statement saying that Pawar's comment should be "considered as fatherly advice".
"MVA is a government of all three parties. It was Sharad Pawar who criticised Barack Obama for commenting on Rahul Gandhi in his book. Pawar saheb had clearly said Obama must not comment on leaders of other countries," said Tapase. Meanwhile, BJP took a dig at the Congress party saying that it doesn't care about the development of the nation and was simply running after the Gandhi family in spite of the fact that several questions have been raised on the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.
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