top of page

By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 11:29:11 am

Shinde dilutes demand

Likely to be content with Deputy Mayor’s post in Mumbai Mumbai: In a decisive shift that redraws the power dynamics of Maharashtra’s urban politics, the standoff over the prestigious Mumbai Mayor’s post has ended with a strategic compromise. Following days of resort politics and intense backroom negotiations, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has reportedly diluted its demand for the top job in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), settling instead for the Deputy Mayor’s post. This...

Shinde dilutes demand

Likely to be content with Deputy Mayor’s post in Mumbai Mumbai: In a decisive shift that redraws the power dynamics of Maharashtra’s urban politics, the standoff over the prestigious Mumbai Mayor’s post has ended with a strategic compromise. Following days of resort politics and intense backroom negotiations, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has reportedly diluted its demand for the top job in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), settling instead for the Deputy Mayor’s post. This development, confirmed by high-ranking party insiders, follows the realization that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) effectively ceded its claims on the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) to protect the alliance, facilitating a “Mumbai for BJP, Kalyan for Shinde” power-sharing formula. The compromise marks a complete role reversal between the BJP and the Shiv Sena. Both the political parties were in alliance with each other for over 25 years before 2017 civic polls. Back then the BJP used to get the post of Deputy Mayor while the Shiv Sena always enjoyed the mayor’s position. In 2017 a surging BJP (82 seats) had paused its aggression to support the undivided Shiv Sena (84 seats), preferring to be out of power in the Corporation to keep the saffron alliance intact. Today, the numbers dictate a different reality. In the recently concluded elections BJP emerged as the single largest party in Mumbai with 89 seats, while the Shinde faction secured 29. Although the Shinde faction acted as the “kingmaker”—pushing the alliance past the majority mark of 114—the sheer numerical gap made their claim to the mayor’s post untenable in the long run. KDMC Factor The catalyst for this truce lies 40 kilometers north of Mumbai in Kalyan-Dombivali, a region considered the impregnable fortress of Eknath Shinde and his son, MP Shrikant Shinde. While the BJP performed exceptionally well in KDMC, winning 50 seats compared to the Shinde faction’s 53, the lotter for the reservation of mayor’s post in KDMC turned the tables decisively in favor of Shiv Sena there. In the lottery, the KDMC mayor’ post went to be reserved for the Scheduled Tribe candidate. The BJP doesn’t have any such candidate among elected corporatros in KDMC. This cleared the way for Shiv Sena. Also, the Shiv Sena tied hands with the MNS in the corporation effectively weakening the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s alliance with them. Party insiders suggest that once it became clear the BJP would not pursue the KDMC Mayor’s chair—effectively acknowledging it as Shinde’s fiefdom—he agreed to scale down his demands in the capital. “We have practically no hope of installing a BJP Mayor in Kalyan-Dombivali without shattering the alliance locally,” a Mumbai BJP secretary admitted and added, “Letting the KDMC become Shinde’s home turf is the price for securing the Mumbai Mayor’s bungalow for a BJP corporator for the first time in history.” The formal elections for the Mayoral posts are scheduled for later this month. While the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA)—led by the Shiv Sena (UBT)—has vowed to field candidates, the arithmetic heavily favors the ruling alliance. For Eknath Shinde, accepting the Deputy Mayor’s post in Mumbai is a tactical retreat. It allows him to consolidate his power in the MMR belt (Thane and Kalyan) while remaining a partner in Mumbai’s governance. For the BJP, this is a crowning moment; after playing second fiddle in the BMC for decades, they are poised to finally install their own “First Citizen” of Mumbai.

Another episode of Fadnavis vs Pankaja

Updated: Nov 18, 2024

This time they differ over the BJP’s catchline, ‘Batenge to Katenge’


Fadnavis vs Pankaja

Mumbai: Though multiplicity of voices within Mahayuti over the ‘batenge to katenge’ slogan exposed cracks within the grand alliance, senior BJP leaders have said that attempts are being made to create confusion over the slogans because they have effectively countered the narrative spread by the Congress during the Lok Sabha elections.


BJP Rajya Sabha member and former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had said, “There is no relevance of this (slogan). Slogans are given at election time. This particular slogan is not in good taste and I don’t think people will appreciate it. Personally speaking, I am not in favour of such slogans.”


Another prominent leader from Marathwada, BJP MLC Pankaja Munde, too in an interview given to some news channels, had said, “Frankly, I won’t support it just because I belong to the same party. My belief is that we should work on development alone. A leader’s job is to make every living person on this land as our own. Therefore, we need not bring any such topic to Maharashtra.”


While DCM and NCP leader Ajit Pawar, too had earlier voiced differences over this slogan saying that, “The North (India) may accept this, not us. We have people with different backgrounds in our state. I am of the opinion that such things should not be said.”


Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, however, while interacting with news channels, blamed the ‘pseudo secular’ environment in which the leaders were for the long time for their dislike towards the slogan and also said that they must not have realized the how positive those slogans are.


“In politics narratives need to be countered. In the Lok Sabha polls, Congress indulged in vote jihad. Fatwas were issued by maulvis and along with that, Congress created divisions along caste lines. That means on the one hand, they polarised Muslims, and on the other, divided Hindus. Historically whenever there was a division of society, the country was divided and society suffered. So, I think ‘batenge toh katenge’ and ‘ek hain toh safe hain’ are positive slogans for unity and there is nothing wrong with it,” Fadnavis said. “Ajit Pawar, Ashok Chavan come from a different ideology. They had been surrounded with pseudo-secular groups for a long time. Hence, they’re unable to understand the deeper meaning behind Yogi Adityanath’s ‘batenge to katenge’ call. We’ll help them understand,” he added.


Regarding Pankaja Munde, he said that he has spoken to her and she explained to him that she just wanted to project the work done by the Mahayuti government than to speak about the slogans and divisive forces in the society.


This is another chapter in the feud between Fadnavis and Pankaja which is going on since a decade when the former became the Chief Minister in 2014. When they were in the same government there was a public war of words between them over Twitter. Off late, Pankaja had announced that she was fighting a ‘Dharma Yuddha’ within the party. Without naming Fadnavis she had equated him with Kauravas who had ill-intension towards their cousins, the Pandavas.


Fadnavis also said that the slogans are very much relevant since the OBCs comprise of 350 castes while the STs comprise of 54 castes and the BJP has been appealing all these communities to stay united.

A senior RSS leader, who doesn’t want to be named, said that the slogans have effectively countered the narrative created by the Congress during Lok Sabha polls. “It is probably due to this that attempts are being made to create confusion over the slogans,” he added.

Comments

bottom of page