Maharashtra: Behind Tuesday’s smiles, some anxious moments

In the Congress camp, a tale was cited about how there was some panic when a MLA, who was put up in a resort, had stepped out of his room. Keen to keep its flock together, the Congress had put most of its MLAs in twin-sharing arrangements.

WHILE LEADERS of NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena were all smiles Tuesday, behind it lay several anxious moments, particularly after Ajit Pawar broke away from the NCP.

A photograph of Sena leader Eknath Shinde, NCP’s Shashikant Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray’s personal assistant Milind Narvekar accosting NCP MLA Sanjay Bansode — who had not been in touch with his party — from a hotel near the airport, and bringing him to NCP’s meeting in south Mumbai, stood out as the new alliance outsmarted an aggressive BJP that was on the hunt.

Three other missing MLAs, who had been flown to Gurgaon by the BJP, were brought back after a carefully planned operation by the NCP.

In the Congress camp, a tale was cited about how there was some panic when a MLA, who was put up in a resort, had stepped out of his room. Keen to keep its flock together, the Congress had put most of its MLAs in twin-sharing arrangements.

The NCP camp, meanwhile, had drawn up a list of “vulnerable” MLAs. Sources said that a close watch was being kept on their movements. In one of the hotels where NCP MLAs were kept, the presence of police personnel before a meeting to be jointly presided over by Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray had led to angry scenes.

Not leaving anything to chance, the Congress had especially sent former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan to assist the battery of lawyers fighting the Sena-Congress-NCP coalition’s case in the Supreme Court.

The Sena had also sent Anil Desai, Anil Parab and Gajanan Kirtikar to Delhi for the assignment.

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