MVA intact & will fight polls unitedly, say all 3 partners

MUMBAI: At a time questions are being raised about whether the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi is on the verge of collapse following Sharad Pawar's decision to relinquish his post as NCP chief and his stringent criticism of Uddhav Thackeray's style of functioning as CM, partners in the alliance are confident that there is no threat to its existence and that all the ensuing civic, Lok Sabha and assembly elections would be contested jointly.
On Thursday, Uddhav Thackeray, state Congress president Nana Patole and his NCP counterpart Jayant Patil said there was no threat to the MVA.
"Sharad Pawar's decision is not final. In our opinion, MVA is intact. We will not take any step that will endanger the existence of the MVA; from our side, MVA will remain intact," Thackeray said.
State NCP president Jayant Patil endorsed the view. "Sharad Pawar has resigned, but no final decision has been taken on his resignation. Despite likely changes in the NCP, there is no threat to the MVA. It is intact and it will remain intact. We will contest all the coming elections together. We will keep BJP away from power," he said.
MPCC president Nana Patole said that the resignation of Pawar was the NCP's internal matter and would not have any adverse impact on the MVA and elections in future. "MVA was formed with a common minimum programme with the approval of heads of all the constituents of MVA," he said.
Patole added that after outcome of elections to the legislative council from Nagpur and Amravati and the Pune assembly by-election, the MVA had become more powerful than ever before. "We succeeded in making inroads in the BJP's strongholds," he said.
After the 2019 assembly poll results, Sharad Pawar had taken the lead in forming the MVA comprising Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress to keep BJP out of power. Pawar was then able to mobilize the requisite number of legislators for staking claim for formation of government, and Thackeray was chosen as leader of MVA legislative party.
Following Pawar's resignation, there have been questions asked about MVA. Also, in his autobiography, Pawar launched a frontal attack against Thackeray, saying that as CM he failed to make his presence felt for the administration and for the general life of the people of Maharashtra. Pawar observed Thackeray lacked leadership qualities and miserably failed to quell the rebellion in Shiv Sena.