New Delhi: The winter session of Parliament beginning next week is expected to see whether the friends-turned-foes in Maharashtra would remain allies at the Centre. Shiv Sena, which has been the oldest ideological ally of the BJP, is sitting in the Opposition benches in Maharashtra while its nominee is part of the Narendra Modi Cabinet in New Delhi.
Interestingly, ahead of the Parliament session, Sharad Pawar's NCP has become a strange bedfellow of BJP in Maharashtra while being the second largest constituent of Congress-led UPA in Delhi.
"We have not taken a decision about our future course of action. There have been some issues of discord. We have differences of opinion on some matters," Shiv Sena spokesman and leader of the party in Rajya Sabha Sanjay Raut told PTI.
A tussle appeared to be on in Shiv Sena on the course to be adopted with a section still seeking sharing of power with BJP while another wanting the party to play the role of the opposition.
This is in spite of the fact that the way the Devendra Fadnavis government secured trust vote in the Maharashtra Assembly has widened the gap between BJP and Shiv Sena.
A section in the BJP is also uncomfortable due to the support from NCP which the Prime Minister himself had dubbed during the Assembly election campaign as a "Naturally Corrupt Party". This section feels that the BJP will have to pay heavily if it takes support of NCP in Maharashtra.
On the other hand, Pawar while extending his support to BJP beyond Maharashtra Legislature took a broom in his hands two days back in a gesture signaling a new found bonhomie between the two parties.
On Friday, Pawar, accompanied by his family members including his daughter and MP Supriya Sule, former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar besides party general secretary D P Tripathi, swept a road in his hometown Baramati in full glare of cameras.
The action seemed to drive home the message of 'Swachh Bharat' campaign of the Modi-led NDA government. However, in an effort to stamp NCP's distinct identity
in the drive, Pawar had, in a press conference held in Pune a few days back, had announced that his party activists would undertake the cleanliness drive in view of the rampant dengue cases in Maharashtra.
In New Delhi, NCP has scotched speculation and has decided to attend the two-day international conference of Congress on Jawaharlal Nehru beginning from tomorrow.
Pawar has asked Tripathi to attend the event and the NCP general secretary has already intimated Congress President Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel in this regard. Congress has not invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi or any other other BJP leader for the conference it is organising to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, joining the battle with Modi, who it accuses of trying to appropriate freedom movement leaders.
Though party chief Sonia Gandhi had extended the invitation to Pawar, Congress was in double mind over the issue after NCP extended support to the BJP during trust vote in Maharashtra.
