BJP and morality contradictory to each other: Pawar

MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said the Bharatiya Janata Party and morality are contradictory to each other and asserted that the Supreme Court's verdict on last year's Maharashtra political crisis will help the MVA convince people about BJP's "misuse" of authority. Earlier in the day, the top court held the Maharashtra governor was not justified in calling upon then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to prove majority in the Assembly on June 30 last year but refused to order status quo ante, saying he did not face the floor test and resigned.

Pawar made the statement when he was asked for his views about the demands of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress that Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde should resign after the SC ruling. Pawar said, "The BJP and morality are contradictory to each other. What more can I comment?" The veteran politician said, "The BJP's strategy is to break smaller parties and form the government if they cannot win on their own. This is not good for democracy." However, the Supreme Court's decision could help "us (MVA) easily convince people how BJP misuses authority", he said.

Pawar declined to say more on the SC observation that Thackeray had resigned on his own. "Let bygones be bygones. From here, Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP will work together and face the elections." The MVA has these three parties as partners. The NCP chief criticised the former Maharashtra governor, who also was pulled up by the apex court. Pawar said, "I had already expressed my views about the then Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. The office of the governor is a constitutional institution. He was a good example of how to disrespect an institution. Luckily he is not here, so there is no need to comment on it any further." The Supreme Court on Thursday held that it cannot restore the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray as he resigned without facing the floor test in June last year. In a unanimous verdict on a batch of pleas related to the political crisis that led to the fall of the three-party MVA government led by Thackeray following a revolt by the Shinde faction, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud held that the then Speaker's decision to appoint Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde faction as the whip of Shiv Sena was "illegal". The court said the then governor Koshyari did not have reasons based on objective material before him to reach the conclusion that then chief minister Thackeray had lost the confidence of the House.