NCP Minister reveals Sharad Pawar's 'state secret', Congress scowls

State politics heated up again with Nationalist Congress Party Minister Dr Jitendra Awhad declaring that the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA would return to power and NCP President Sharad Pawar was keen to continue Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Minister again after 2024 Assembly pollsContending that it was Pawars secret desire which he had expressed in close circles Dr Awhad said at a party meeting in Navi Mumbai that the Shiv SenaNCPCongress would once more unitedly contest the 2024 Assembly elections and come back to power relegating the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP to the Opposition benches againThe NCP Ministers statement assumes significance coming months after Sena MP and Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut had also said the same but it was scornfully ignored as a tall claimDr Awhads statement was greeted with smugness by Sena leaders the Congress smelt a rat while the BJP was left rattled though it has not yet reactedThis time the state Congress Working President Arif Naseem Khan made it clear that the MVA experiment was born in 2019 owing to the peculiar political situation then and functions on the basis of a Common Minimum ProgrammeThe Congress is growing stronger in the state particularly at the grassroots level Our firm endeavour is to win the maximum seats and also elect our CM Khan told IANSHowever he declined to comment on Dr Awhads statement or whether the party would adopt a solitary path and said the Congress will take a call depending on the political situation in 2024Senas farmer face and Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalamban Mission Chairman Kishore Tiwari accorded a MoS status said Pawars sentiments are a testimony to the performance of CM Thackerayji as compared with the dismal tenure of BJP with Devendra Fadnavis as CMIt is also the peoples open wish to vote the MVA back with a thumping 200plus seats in 2024 The masses have not forgotten the treatment the BJP meted out to the farmers the inflation fuel prices unemployment false promises and hounding of nonBJP governments by letting loose central agencies on them Tiwari told IANSDespite repeated attempts top BJP leaders were not available for their comments but sources indicated a sense of despair as the party repeatedly missed its deadlines predicting the MVA collapse in the past 25 monthsComing barely 10 days after the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote RIP for the Congressled UPA the Congress was buoyed by the SenaNCPs response thenNow the Congress anticipates the possibility of new permutations and combinations emerging with turncoats defecting from the BJP ranks both in the state and national levels prompting the party Congress to adopt a waitandwatch policyFor the present despite the occasional hiccups things appear hunkydory among the three allies and cracks are sealed at least temporarily with highlevel confabulations like the recent ones between Sanjay Raut with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi that ensure the threetyre government remains accidentfreeA senior NCP leader reiterated that the priority for the 3parties is to ensure the BJP is kept out at any cost starting with the upcoming civic elections in early2022 followed by the 2024 Lok Sabha and then the 2024 Assembly pollsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever