New Delhi: The political situation in Maharashtra continues to be fluid since the rebellion in Shiv Sena led by the senior party leader Eknath Shinde.
The rebellion in the party has brought the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, headed by Sena chief Udhav Thackeray, on the brink.
Shinde has been claiming that around 40 Shiv Sena MLAs have joined his camp. Reportedly, Shinde and his rebel camp, currently camped in Guwahati has several independent legislators as well. The political crisis in Maharashtra reached the Supreme Court after Shinde filed a petition in the apex court against Shiv Sena’s move to disqualify him and 15 other rebel MLAs.
The top court of the country extended the deadline given to the lawmakers to file their responses to the disqualification notices against them till July 11. The Shiv Sena having 55 MLAs heads the MVA government in the state. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with 53 legislators and the Congress party having 44 MLAs are the alliance partners in the MVA government. Maharashtra legislative Assembly has a strength of 288 members.
As the fate of the MVA government has been put in jeopardy with the rebellion in Shiv Sena, C-Voter-IndiaTracker conducted a countrywide survey on behalf of IANS to know people’s views on the issue. The survey intended to understand who, according to people, will emerge as winner between Thacekray and Shinde in this fight for political hegemony of the party. Interestingly, during the survey, while the opinion of respondents was divided on the issue, a larger proportion of them – 53 per cent asserted that Shinde will be the winner in this political battle, 47 per cent opined in favour of Thackeray.
During the survey, while the majority of NDA voters – 66 per cent believed that Shinde will emerge victorious in this fight to claim leadership of Shiv Sena, a large proportion of opposition voters – 57 per cent said that Thackeray will continue to hold reins of the party.
During the survey, different social groups shared different opinions on the issue. According to the survey data, majority of Upper Caste Hindus (UCH) – 60 per cent and large proportion of Other Backward Classes (OBC) – 59 per cent opined that Shinde will replace Thackeray as the leader of Shiv Sena.
The views of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) were divided on the issue. As per the survey data, while 52 per cent ST respondents believe that Thackeray will continue as undisputed leader of Shiv Sena, 48 per cent ST voters spoke in favour of Shinde. At the same time, while 52 per cent SC respondents think that Shinde will be the winner in this battle for political supremacy over Shiv Sena, 48 per cent SC voters did not share the sentiment and believe that Thackeray will have the last laugh. Notably, a whopping majority of Muslim respondents – 72 per cent asserted that the incumbent chief minister will emerge winner in this political fight.
–IANS