The Shiv Sena, which pulled out its nominee Arvind Swant from the Union Cabinet yesterday, had hoped to form a government with support from the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress. Sena scion Aadtiya Thackeray went to the governor with a request to give the party an extension over its 24-hour deadline set earlier but the request was denied.
In comparison, Sena leaders point that the governor had given the BJP, the single largest party, three days to indicate its willingness to stake claim and prove its numbers.
Senior lawyer and former minister Kapil Sibal is being roped in to represent the Sena in the top court, a Congress leader said. Sibal coud not be reached for his comment.
Aaditya Thackeray, who became the face of Sena’s effort to stake claim, had yesterday argued that his party had told the governor that his party was willing to stake claim but its two mint-fresh potential allies needed time to complete the formalities for extending support.
A senior Congress leader told HT that Sonia Gandhi had conveyed to the NCP boss Sharad Pawar that her party was in principle on board with the move. But a formal communication wasn’t issued because of an assessment that the two parties should not rush into the alliance with the Sena without thinking through the details of the arrangement and the ground rules.
The Congress leader cited above declined to detail the points on which the Congress and NCP were looking for more clarity.
But he did indicate that the Sena’s two potential partners did not favour the practice of the governor setting 24-hour deadlines for political parties, “not after waiting for a fortnight without saying a word” while the two pre-poll allies, BJP and Sena, who had secured 105 and 56 seats respectively, worked out their differences.
Prasanta Patnaik