Even as there has been news of the widening rift between the Congress and NCP in the state government, Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has been assuring everyone that there is perfect coordination in the Democratic Front government. Even NCP leaders, except for party’s state president Madhukar Pichad, have not made any public statement against the CM. Sources from the NCP have claimed that Mr Pichad had a personal grudge against the CM and, hence, chose to go public with his views.
As even the usually outspoken NCP ministers like DCM Ajit Pawar and Chhagan Bhujbal have chosen to remain silent on the issue, Mr Pichad being the only one to raise the subject of non-coordination is being viewed by many as his “personal game plan”.
“It is a matter of hurt ego. Mr Pichad had once gone to meet the CM, but Mr Chavan could not meet him. However, when the CM called him, Mr Pichad refused to go,” said a NCP leader, pointing out that the CM might have been referring to the same incident when he spoke about ironing out “specific issues”.
“There has been perfect coordination. If there are any specific issues, we will discuss them, the CM said.
The CM also denied reports that the main bone of contention between the Congress and NCP is Maharashtra. Mr Chavan maintained that the developments in Delhi had nothing do with demands of NCP MLAs in Maharashtra.
He even added, “There is always a scope for improvement of coordination between political parties, between ruling parties amongst themselves as well as between the ruling parties and the Opposition.”
The NCP will be taking decision about its course of action on Monday. But even as there has been news of the NCP ministers having complained to their party head Sharad Pawar about Mr Chava’s style of functioning, the ministers themselves have not made any public statement against the CM.