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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.

Building BJP From Grassroots

Updated: Nov 7, 2024

BJP From Grassroots

A committed party worker, Raosaheb Danve is believed to have offered to quit his ministerial berth at the Centre to lead the Maharashtra BJP when the post of the state president fell vacant in 2014 after Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the chief minister. A Maratha leader of the BJP, he’s credited with building the party rank and file in Jalna, the region which nurtured his political career. A school passout, Danve started his work in public life as a village sarpanch and then rose to greater heights, becoming a two term-MLA and minister and a five-term Member of Parliament and a minister of state at the Union Government. He held the portfolio for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. Within the party, Danve is known for his grassroots connect with the party cadre and strove to help the BJP spread its wings. For a committed party worker of the BJP, his daughter’s decision to join the Shiv Sena may have come as a surprise. Danve’s daughter Sanjana Jadhav is contesting the upcoming assembly elections as a member of the Shiv Sena from Kannad in Chhatrapti Sambhajinagar. What’s interesting is that she is taking on her estranged husband Harshvardhan, a former MLA from that seat.


Danve’s son Santosh entered the Maharashtra legislative assembly in 2014 and was, at that time, the youngest MLA in the House at the age of 27 years. He represents the Bhokardan constituency.

Besides his son and daughter, there’s another family member in the fray and that is Danve’s brother Bhaskarrao who rebelled and filed his nomination as an independent from Jalna after the BJP chose another candidate.


Danve lost the Lok Sabha elections this year facing a dual challenge of anti-incumbency and the ire of the Maratha community which is believed to have directed its anger towards the BJP for not moving ahead on the issue of reservations for the Marathas to be included within the OBC category. Jalna, which Danve represents, is the epicentre of Manoj Jarange Patil’s protests which he began from Anatarvali-Saraati. Despite being a Maratha leader, Danve lost. The former MP is now a member of a committee formed by the BJP to oversee the assembly elections.

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