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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.

Bhoomiputras’ Leaders

Updated: Nov 7, 2024

Bhoomiputras

In the seaside town of Alibaug which buzzes with high-end resorts and bungalows of the rich and the famous, is the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) that champions the cause of the not-so-privileged. This left-leaning party has seen three generations of the Patil family holding top positions and is now set for a member of the fourth generation to make her electoral debut. Siblings Meenakshi, Subhash and Jayant Patil, have made the PWP a well-recognised name as Meenakshi held ministerial portfolios and Jayant has been a member of the legislative council for several years. Their grandfather Narayan Patil or Nanasaheb was among the founding members of the PWP which was formed in 1948. He had led the famous Thari Satyagrah which championed the rights of landless farm labourers against the might of feudal landlords.


Their uncle, Dattatray Patil, was an MLA and has served a leader of the opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly between 1987 and 1990.


Locally known as the ‘first family’ of the PWP, the Patils have, for long, wielded considerable political and electoral influence over Alibaug, matching the popularity of the various political dynasties that control cooperatives and educational empires in the state. While the party tried to position itself as an anti-Congress, anti-right-wing force, it has joined hands with the Congress and was part of the Shiv Sena-BJP government in 1995.


Meenakshi was a member of the legislative assembly from Alibaug from 1995 and also held the position of a minister of state for ports and fisheries in Vilasrao Deshmukh’s government in 1999. Her brother Jayant has been an MLC since 2002 until he lost the elections to the upper house of the Maharashtra legislature this year. The family’s political influence has been strong despite the party not having too many legislators. Jayant has courted controversy several times; in 2015, a farmer had accused him of land grab and the anti-corruption bureau had launched a probe into his assets; he had heckled Shahrukh Khan for allegedly delaying the departure of the ferry and in 2019, was accused by a journalist for slapping him without any provocation. His brother Subhash Patil has also been an MLA from Alibaug.


Jayant Patil’s 37-year-old daughter-in-law Chitralekha made her electoral debut by filing her nomination for the assembly elections from Alibaug. She made news when she cycled to to file her nomination.

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