Eknath Shinde govt will collapse in next six months, be ready for mid-term polls: Sharad Pawar ahead of floor test

Mumbai: NCP chief Sharad Pawar has predicted that the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra led by Eknath Shinde will most likely fall in the next six months. The veteran Maharashtra politician has also asked his party MLAs and workers to be prepared for mid-term polls. The NCP patron made these remarks while addressing NCP legislators and other leaders of the party on Sunday evening.

"The newly-formed government in Maharashtra may fall in the next six months, hence all should be ready for mid-term polls," an NCP leader, who attended the meeting, quoted Pawar as saying.

"Pawar said that many rebel legislators who are supporting Shinde are not happy with the current arrangement. Once the ministerial portfolios are distributed, their unrest will come out, which will ultimately result in the collapse of the government," he said.

The Maratha strongman also pointed out that the failure of this experiment will lead to several rebel MLAs returning to their original party – the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction. “If we have merely six months in our hands, NCP legislators should spend more time in their respective assembly constituencies,” Pawar said.

Rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister of Maharashtra on Thursday following the collapse of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government, while senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis took oath as Shinde's deputy.

Around 40 Sena MLAs led by Shinde rebelled against the party leadership, which eventually resulted in the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on Wednesday.

Ahead of the floor test of the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government on Monday, one more Shiv Sena MLA from the Uddhav Thackeray camp joined CM Shinde's faction, taking its tally to 40. The Shiv Sena currently has 55 MLAs in the 288-member state Assembly.

Santosh Bangar, the MLA from Kalamnuri in Hingoli district, on Monday morning switched over to the Shinde camp. Earlier, in a jolt to former CM Uddhav Thackeray ahead of the Eknath Shinde-led government's floor test, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar had on Sunday reinstated Shinde as the Shiv Sena legislature party leader, removing Ajay Chaudhary.