A spat broke out among Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies after Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) veteran Chandrakant Khaire claimed at least 22 Congress legislators are ready to join deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The former MP from the Uddhav faction of Shiv Sena later retracted his statement and offered an apology to state Congress president Nana Patole for his ‘uncalled-for remarks’, after the grand old party’s strong rejoinder on the matter.
Addressing a rally in Aurangabad on Friday, Khaire had said Fadnavis has mobilised the support of 22 legislators of Congress to ensure the BJP-Shinde government does not fall in Maharashtra in case 16 legislators of the Shinde faction are disqualified by the judiciary, according to a report by Times of India.
“If the Shinde faction legislators are disqualified as per the provisions of the anti-defection law, the fall of the government is quite certain. To avoid that situation, Fadnavis has mobilised the support of 22 Congress legislators to ensure the government survives,” Khaire said.
Khaire is known to be a trusted aide of former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and has considerable influence in the Marathwada region, where Shiv Sena’s legislators have sided with the rival Eknath Shinde faction overwhelmingly.
Khaire’s statement drew sharp rejoinders from senior Congress leaders, including Patole, who said “Khaire has exceeded his brief. His statement was irresponsible and uncalled for.”
Following a sharp rebuttal, Khaire later retracted his statement and said, “I had no intention to hurt the sentiments of Patole or any political party.”
In 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, MVA allies have a strength of 117 MLAs, while 167 legislators support the BJP-Shinde government. There are four other independent MLAs.
In the MVA faction, Congress has 44 legislators, NCP has 55, and Uddhav-led Shiv Sena has 15 MLAs with the support of 3 independents.
The BJP-Shinde faction consists of 106 BJP legislators along with the support of 10 independent MLAs and the Shinde faction has 40 MLAs and 11 independent MLAs.
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