NEW DELHI: Maharashtra strongman Sharad Pawar's poser to his partymen to remain ready for snap polls in the state has not come as a surprise. However, it puts the BJP government led by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in a quandary. More so as he took oath of office barely 20 days ago.

Pawar has been shifting his stand quite often, thereby keeping both BJP and the Shiv Sena guessing about his political tactics. First, he offered unconditional support to the BJP ostensibly to ensure political stability in the state; then it became '' issue based support" and, at a recent two day party convention at Alibag, he declared that support could not be taken for granted. This indicates that Pawar would not hesitate to pull the rug out from under the government, if Fadnavis presses for actions against his party leaders, who are allegedly embroiled in various scams.

Reports from two day introspective convention in Alibag indicate that some senior leaders of the NCP are not in tune with the thinking of their mentor and, feel that the party can regain its strength, if it decides to play role of an opposition, rather than giving outside support to the government. They pointed out that Fadnavis was neither willing to openly accept obligation of the NCP on the floor of the House, nor did NCP do anything to show that it supported the government, thereby, leaving the politics in Maharashtra in a state of flux.

NCP is particularly annoyed at rural development minister Pankaja Munde's reported recent decision to cancel as many as 1677 public works amounting to Rs.121 crores in 18 districts in which the party has strong base . The BJP is also trying to interfere in cooperative sector which is controlled largely the Congress-NCP combine.

Meanwhile, sharing of the dais by Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and his estranged cousin Raj Thackeray, (chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena -MNS) at the makeshift memorial of Bal Thackeray on his second death anniversary at Mumbai's Shivaji Park did fuel some hopes of their coming together. But, they remained short lived, as Raj denied any such move. Having lost much of his political clout, Raj has now been forced to plough a lonely furrow.

Looking at Pawar's arm twisting tactics, it remains to be seen whether Fadnavis will make positive overtures to Shiv Sena to maintain stability of his government. First such indication came on Tuesday , when the CM led his entire cabinet and part office bearers to pay floral tributes to Bal Thackeray. His promise to build a memorial for the late Sena Supremo may assuage feelings of Uddhav Thackeray. But, the question, whether this will ultimately lead to power sharing between the BJP and Sena remains unanswered, at least for the time being. A number of power sharing formulae suggested by Sena have evinced no response from the BJP. Both the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party president Amit Shah remain adamant on this issue. In spite of humiliation, Shiv Sena continues to retain its minister of heavy industries Anant Geete at the centre. It is certainly a sign of Sena's weakness.

Both the BJP and the NCP are aiming at 'Congress Mukt' Maharashtra. In the hope of garnering minority votes the Congress gave 8 seats to Samajwadi Party, which drew blank. This benefitted the new entrant Majlis-e-Ittihadul Muslimeen (MIM) which won two assembly seats in elections, making a successful debut. The party won 5.13 lakh votes. It lost three seats by a narrow margin and finished third in nine constituencies, proving a shift in the minority vote.

The Bombay High Court's verdict on Friday to stay the implementation of the Congress -NCP government's decision to provide 16 % quota in government jobs and educational institutes for Maratha community and 5 % reservation for 50 Muslim communities in public employment has further exposed their last minute tactics. Similarly, rejection by the High Court of the CBI's plea to drop former chief minister Ashok Chavan's name from the list of accused in the chargesheet in the Adarsh Society case has come as an embarrassment to the Congress. This may open up can of worms in the controversial Adarsh saga.

As winter session of the Parliament begins on Monday, it will be interesting to see, what kind of floor coordination Shiv Sena will offer to Modi government. It will be equally interesting to observe proceedings of the winter session of Maharashtra assembly which commence in the first week of December, as Eknath Shinde of Shiv Sena prepares to play role of the leader of opposition.

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