NCP played same ‘unsolicited support’ move in Maharashtra in 2014 as it is doing now in Nagaland, says Eknath Shinde

  Sanjay Raut defends NCP’s decision in Nagaland, says decision taken in interests of stable governance.

After the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) decision to support the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP)- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance Nagaland government raised political eyebrows, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut on Thursday justified the NCP’s decision in Nagaland by stating that such decisions had to be taken in the interests of governance, while the ruling Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena hit out at the NCP’s ‘double standards.’

In the recently concluded Nagaland Legislative Assembly elections, the NDPP won 25 seats and the BJP won 12 with NDPP leader Neiphiu Rio being sworn-in as Chief Minister for a fifth term. The newly-formed cabinet comprises seven ministers from the NDPP and five from the BJP.

However, the NCP – a fierce opponent of the BJP in the country which emerged as the third-largest party in the Nagaland election with seven seats – announced its decision to back the NDDP-BJP alliance thus leaving the Nagaland Assembly with no strong Opposition party.

Mocking the NCP’s ‘opportunist tactics’, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, whose Shiv Sena is allied with the BJP in Maharashtra, pointed out that Mr. Pawar’s party had done the same after the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly election when the NCP had offered unsolicited support to the BJP.

“What they (the NCP) are doing in Nagaland today, had been done by them in 2014 in Maharashtra as well (offering to support the BJP). So, on one hand they accuse us [Shinde-BJP government] of being ‘communal’ and a ‘government of traitors’ among other things. I only wish to say that people living in glass houses should not throw stones at others,” said Mr. Shinde wryly.

The CM further said that in the recent Assembly by-polls, the public had put the NCP in its place in the party’s bastion Chinchwad, where the BJP candidate had won a thumping victory.

In announcing his party’s support for the Nagaland government, Mr. Sharad Pawar had clarified that the NCP’s support was “for CM Rio and not the BJP.”