Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray marked last week by dominating the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) affairs. When the fractures in the tripartite formation, especially between the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), showed without an X-ray examination, grand master Sharad Pawar swung into action to heal them. After holding parleys with Thackeray, Pawar eased the tension considerably through an exhaustive interview with the Sena mouthpiece Saamna. Pawar is the only third politician after the Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray to have featured in this kind of interaction in the newspaper which the NCP boss's companion in last year's MVA coup, Sena MP Sanjay Raut, edits. The third part of the interview will appear today.

Pawar denied any fissures in the MVA and asserted that he wasn't really a backseat driver for the Thackeray sarkar. He compared the Thackerays, and inferred that unlike the Sena founder, the son was cautious in taking decisions, especially related to the lockdown relaxations. However, the appreciation came with a caution that whatever the result — failure or success — would belong to the CM, and yet the MVA would remain intact. Fair enough, says the Sena camp, expecting Pawar to live up to his word whenever odds hit the government that has become a sort of a pilot experiment for the country's national and regional parties. Thackeray may have invited risks by asserting himself so aggressively, but the Sena leaders say their boss will be ready to force his way through if the ally breaks truce and strikes back.