With Ajit Pawar's big mutiny putting a question mark on the number of legislators left with Sharad Pawar's faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, the Congress has struck while the iron's hot and said that it will demand the Leader of Opposition post in the Maharashtra assembly.
The Congress has reiterated, however, that the Maha Vikas Aghadi will emerge stronger from this crisis.
The statement by Congress Legislature Party leader Balasaheb Thorat comes a day after NCP's Maharashtra president Jayant Patil had named Jitendra Awhad as Leader of the Opposition following the rebellion by Ajit Pawar, who has resigned from the post. News agency PTI quoted NCP chief Sharad Pawar as saying that the Congress is justified in claiming the post.
"The Congress is the strongest party in the opposition. Our MLAs are intact. We had 44 MLAs in 2019, and we now have 45. The Leader of Opposition is from the opposition party with the most number of MLAs and, accordingly, we will demand the post. We will have a meeting of the legislature party tomorrow and discuss the future course of action," Mr Thorat told NDTV.
"The Maha Vikas Aghadi will emerge stronger as the people's support has turned against the Shinde-Fadnavis government because of the injustice done to the Shiv Sena and the NCP. A meeting of the MVA will take place soon," Mr Thorat, who played a key role in stitching up the alliance, added.
The constitution of the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly underwent a drastic change after Eknath Shinde's rebellion last year and has changed again after Ajit Pawar's coup yesterday. While the Congress has 45 MLAs, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena has been left with 17 and - if the Ajit Pawar faction's claim of 40 MLAs is true - the Sharad Pawar faction will have 13.
The situation marks a stunning reversal of fortunes for the Congress, which had the least number of MLAs when the alliance was formed in 2019, and was perceived as its weak link.
The NCP split vertically yesterday after Ajit Pawar joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, with eight other NCP MLAs taking oath as ministers. While announcing that he had joined the government, he was flanked by Sharad Pawar loyalists Chhagan Bhujbal and Praful Patel.
Sharad Pawar put up a show of strength while paying tribute to his mentor and Maharashtra's first Chief Minister Yashwantrao Chavan at his memorial in Satara district's Karad today. He was accompanied by senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan.
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