Shinde Government will not survive more than six months says Sharad Pawar, ask his party workers to prepare themselves for midterm polls

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President, Sharad Pawar, said that midterm polls will take place in Maharashtra as the Eknath Shinde Government will not survive more than six months.

In a surprising move after the 2019 Maharashtra assembly polls, the NCP, Congress, and Shiv Sena joined hands to form an unlikely alliance to form the government in the state, keeping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had emerged as the single largest party, away from power. Since then, the saffron party has made various attempts to topple the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

Now that the BJP has succeeded in making the MVA government fall, NCP chief Sharad Pawar is counting the days till the new government falls. In his argument, Pawar argued that mid-term polls are a sure shot in Maharashtra as the Shinde-led government will fall in the next six months. This statement was made by Pawar on Sunday evening when he was in a meeting with NCP MLAs and other leaders of the party. “The newly formed government in Maharashtra may fall in the next six months, hence all should be ready for midterm polls,” Pawar said while speaking to reporters. 

Pawar also said the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs supporting Eknath Shinde are not happy and they may withdraw their support at any time. The NCP supremo added that after the distribution of ministerial portfolios, dissatisfaction in the government will come out, which will ultimately lead to the collapse of the government. The former Chief Minister argued that if there are six months until the polls, the NCP legislators should spend more time in their constituencies.

Eknath Shinde hits back

After securing victory in the trust vote and the assembly speaker elections, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has hit back at the remarks made by NCP chief Sharad Pawar on the survival of the new government and asked his party members to get ready for polls in six months. The Chief Minister said, “Sharad Pawar is a great leader, but whatever he says is just the opposite of the fact.” So we will complete 2.5 years of governance. Next time we will have 200 MLAs, 100 ours (Shiv Sena led by him), and 100 BJP’s. “

Shinde took a dig at Pawar and said whatever the former Chief Minister says, the opposite happens. Shinde further assured all the MLAs that supported him in the trust vote that they would support Droupadi Murmu in the presidential polls. The Chief Minister said his government has the support of 50 Shiv Sena MLAs and 115 BJP MLAs, so his government will be at the doorsteps of the public. The people gave a mandate for this government 2.5 years back, but the government couldn’t be formed at that time due to some issues, said Shinde. The new Chief Minister warned the Uddhav Thackrey camp MLAs of action for violating their whip at the time of voting. Shinde made it clear that his government will try to complete all the pending projects soon as his government has the strong support of experienced Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis.

What is a mid-term election?

A mid-term election which is also known as a by-election is a type of election that is held when an Assembly seat or a Lok Sabha seat falls vacant before the completion of a term. It happens when an elected representative of a particular constituency dies or quits as an MLA or MP before the term ends.  India has seen lots of midterm elections after 1977 as the maximum of the governments after that period were in alliance and they failed to run the government for a full term. 

Midterm polls or elections are also a test to the government on how it is performing especially when the election is held for a few constituencies.  India has seen the maximum number of mid–term elections from 1996-1998 when more than three governments got replaced.