Time-honoured practice that largest party within alliance gets to name CM: Chavan

PTI Mumbai: Confident of the MVA getting a majority in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, senior Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Sunday asserted that it is a “time-honoured” practice” that the party that emerges as the largest within an alliance gets to name the CM. In an interview with PTI, Chavan (78) also dismissed as “BJP propaganda” suggestions that the Congress’ Haryana loss had damaged the opposition alliance’s prospects in Maharashtra and taken away the momentum. “Haryana and Maharashtra are not comparable. If you look at the Lok Sabha poll results, Haryana had a 5-5 result (five seats to the Congress and five to the BJP), but in Maharashtra we (MVA) had 65 per cent 35 per cent result.

There is a huge difference,” Chavan, who was t h e M a - harashtra chief minister between November 2010 to September 2014, said. He also asserted that the social dynamics of Haryana a r e different, and in any case each of Maharashtra’s multiple region has its own social complexion. On who would be the chief minister if the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comes to power, Chavan said, “It is a time-honoured practice that the largest party (post-polls) gets to name the CM. I don’t see why it should be different this time. But this time i f the three parties together want to change the formula they are free to d o that. Leaders can do anything they want.” Chavan pointed out that NCP (SCP) leader Sahrad Pawar has also stated that the party with the highest number of seats among the alliance partners gets to decide on the CM. Asked if he is in the running for the post of chief minister, Chavan said, “That is a ridiculous question. Don’t ask that , first you have to win the election.

Our priority is to win the election. As I said, Mr. Pawar has stated the largest party will get to name the CM.” Chavan also dismissed talk of bickering among MVA constituents Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SCP) over seatsharing, saying the agreement on nearly all the 288 seats was a “remarkable achievement”. “We are talking about 288 seats primarily between three parties and some other parties as well. There are only 3-4 places where two parties are contesting against each other and there are some rebel candidates which cannot be helped,” he told PTI. “Rebel candidates being there is not bickering. The MVA is broadly united,” Chavan said. He said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders discussed and then released the guarantees for Maharashtra.