The Democratic Front (DF) government in Maharashtra faces the uphill task of mustering the requisite MLA strength on June 13, when it finally faces the state legislative assembly in a confidence vote.
Gopinath Munde, national vice-president of the BJP and former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra is confident that DF numbers will not add up. "We (the Shiv Sena and BJP with the support of rebel MLAs from the NCP and Congress) will prove our majority in the legislature. We have 151 MLAs with us."
The opposition claim that, in addition to their combined strength of 134 in the state legislature, it has an additional 17 MLAs (rebels from the NCP and Congress).
"The government has failed to comprehend the simple intricacies of coalition politics. The Congress and the Sharad Pawar-headed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were unable to form the government on their own. They could do so only because of the support offered to them by the PWP, Janta Dal (secular) and independents," he said.
Munde noted that remaining in the coalition government, that announced a slew of policy decisions that were against farmers and workers, was never going to be easy for the Left-oriented parties for too long.
However, according to him, the breaking point was the Raigad local self body elections.
"How could the NCP defeat its own ally in the DF government in favour of the opposition Shiv Sena in a local self body election. This violated the faith of the DF's alliance partners and led to the PWP MLAs severing ties with the government and the subsequent rebels within the NCP and Congress MLAs jumping out as well," Munde told Business Standard.
The five PWP MLAs will take a final decision on the confidence vote on June 11.
The DF government for its part is believed to have offered three ministerial posts to the PWP while ejecting Tatkare from the cabinet. But this in turn is going to ruffle Congress and NCP aspirants for cabinet birth who had been lobbying for long.
A jumbo cabinet might still save the day for the DF government on June 13, it would be a good idea to take a leaf out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's book on the compulsions of coalition politics for the DF.
The Janta Dal (secular) spokesperson for the state, Gopa Dukhande, puts it simply, "The current crisis is the creation of both the forms of the Congress party functioning in the state. These two parties must first accept their mistakes and accord equal treatment to their coalition partners in decision making and daily governance. We are not just junior partners."
The JD(S) MLA from Billori in Nanded district, Gangaram Thakkarwad, has also joined the opposition camp in the run up to the confidence vote. Thakkarwad has written to the governor Dr P C Alexander that he has formed his own party.
For the Congress and the NCP, it will be a nerve wracking six days to the confidence vote, since the opposition combine is refusing to reveal all the names it says have joined its ranks to oust the DF government.
