New Delhi/Pune/Mumbai: Even as NCP (SP) politician Jayant Patil’s late Tuesday night meeting with CM Devendra Fadnavis intensified speculation about whether the Sharad Pawar-led outfit was getting closer to BJP, the party’s MP Supriya Sule said on Wednesday that if the BJP-led NDA govt’s delimitation legislation proposes a uniform 50% jump in Lok Sabha seats in each state, there would be little reason to oppose the bill.Sule’s statement indicated her party’s support to the delimitation legislation, albeit with a caveat, which should be no problem for the govt as it has already committed to an across-the-board 50% increase and Union home minister Amit Shah had declared govt’s stand on the floor of Lok Sabha as he unsuccessfully tried to win over non-Congress parties and get them to support the bill.Sule, however, made it clear that a final decision on the bill will be taken after discussion in the INDI bloc, at whose meeting later this week, she said, she would represent NCP (SP). Sule ruled out her party’s shift towards NDA, saying no such discussions were underway. She said the party had neither held any talks with NDA, nor was it approached on the issue. She said Patil met the CM only to discuss development issues and added there was “nothing political” about the meeting.Patil said on Wednesday that he had met the CM only to discuss disqualification of the Urun-Ishwarpur municipal council president from NCP (SP). He also denied having any meeting with NCP working president Praful Patel and its state president Sunil Tatkare, though the latter also met Fadnavis at his official residence Varsha the same night.This was Patil’s second closed-door meeting with a BJP neta in a week. Last week, he met BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde in Mumbai.Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said repeated meetings between leaders of the governing alliance and NCP (SP) were naturally giving rise to doubts among workers of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). He said allies should remain transparent with each other to avoid confusion and added the opposition alliance expected clarity from its partners.Amid the political churn, Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde became the first major constituent of the BJP-led NDA to suggest that the NDA govt is likely to bring the delimitation bill in the session starting Jul 20, asserting it will be passed this time.He ascribed Sule’s comments to the rethink among opposition parties after paying a “political price” in West Bengal, where the TMC lost badly and has since splintered.Speculation about Pawar’s party started soon after six MPs of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) switched over to the Shinde-led Sena.Several opposition speakers, including from the DMK, had in the last Parliament session seized on the fact that the Constitution amendment bill carried no explicit proposal about a uniform 50% jump in LS seats in each state to vote against it, ignoring Shah’s oral assurance. The bill in its new version in the coming session may include this part as govt looks to win over more parties to touch the required two-thirds support for its passage.As many as 26 LS MPs from the opposition camp — 20 from TMC and six from Sena (UBT) — have switched over to NDA since the last session, taking its tally to 324, still much short of 360 needed in the full House of 540 but opening a path for NDA as it looks to revive the bill.Congress MP P Chidambaram hinted at hectic behind-the-doors manoeuvring by BJP, saying it is reportedly wooing DMK and NCP (SP). The DMK, which is no longer part of INDI bloc, has 22 MPs and NCP (SP) has eight in Lok Sabha, while govt is numerically better placed in Rajya Sabha.
