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By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 4:59:11 pm

Speculations of ‘Operation Tiger’

Mumbai: Recent disqualification of former Mumbai Mayor Vishakha Raut and senior corporator Deepak Sawant has sent shockwaves through the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), sparking speculation of a targeted municipal sequel to the Shiv Sena split. With a surge of election petitions now threatening dozens of elected representatives, whispers of a new form of calculated “Operation Tiger” are growing louder. Many suspect this is a strategic move to dismantle the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray...

Speculations of ‘Operation Tiger’

Mumbai: Recent disqualification of former Mumbai Mayor Vishakha Raut and senior corporator Deepak Sawant has sent shockwaves through the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), sparking speculation of a targeted municipal sequel to the Shiv Sena split. With a surge of election petitions now threatening dozens of elected representatives, whispers of a new form of calculated “Operation Tiger” are growing louder. Many suspect this is a strategic move to dismantle the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) faction’s remaining stronghold in the civic body. Recent action against Raut and Sawant, whose Other Backward Classes (OBC) caste certificates were invalidated, reveals a broader vulnerability. According to BMC data, a staggering 79 election petitions are currently active against corporators across various parties. The charges primarily challenge the authenticity of caste verification certificates, but also include discrepancies in election affidavits concerning declared properties and income. While the sheer volume of petitions against the UBT camp is alarming, civic authorities note that filing a petition does not automatically result in disqualification. The process requires exhausting several legal and administrative steps. Even after a ruling by a caste scrutiny committee or judicial authority, the urban development department must formally issue a gazette notification before a seat is declared vacant. The timing of these petitions has fueled intense speculation. Against the backdrop of the ongoing Supreme Court hearings regarding the original Shiv Sena’s party name and election symbol, analysts suggest rival factions are leveraging these petitions. This municipal “Operation Tiger” appears designed to either legally disqualify embattled UBT members or pressure them into defection to avoid a public unseating. If these petitions lead to widespread disqualifications, the UBT faction risks losing its position as the largest opposition bloc, fundamentally altering the balance of power in Asia’s richest civic body. Election petitions against BMC corporators Political Party: Active Petitions Shiv Sena (UBT): 24 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP): 18 Congress: 10 Shiv Sena (Shinde): 7 AIMIM: 7

CM gets veto over Cabinet

Mumbai: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has been armed with unprecedented legal authority to overrule, alter, or outright cancel decisions made by his own cabinet ministers. Implemented under the newly minted ‘Maharashtra Government Rules of Business, 2026’, this bold centralization of power allows the Chief Minister to intervene directly in departmental affairs under the broad umbrella of “public interest.”


However, this newfound executive veto comes with a critical accountability clause: any such intervention by the Chief Minister must be accompanied by a formally documented written rationale, ensuring a permanent paper trail for why a colleague’s mandate was superseded.


An investigation into the genesis of these sweeping reforms points directly to a glaring legal vulnerability recently exposed by the judiciary.


For years, a cloud of statutory ambiguity hung over whether the state’s highest executive actually possessed the right to unilaterally bypass a minister-in-charge. This legal grey area was starkly illuminated during a 2023 hearing of a high-profile case involving the Chandrapur District Central Co-Operative Bank versus the Maharashtra State Government before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court.


During the proceedings, the court explicitly observed that the Chief Minister lacked the specific, standalone authority to independently review or revoke a departmental minister’s finalized decision. Under the old system, a minister enjoyed the final word over their designated portfolio, and elevating a controversial decision to the full cabinet was largely discretionary. The 2026 rulebook is now meticulously engineered to plug this exact loophole, cementing the Chief Minister’s ultimate supremacy over all executive actions.


Beyond the overarching veto power, the new administrative code dramatically tightens the Chief Minister’s grip on the state’s financial machinery and bureaucratic flow. The regulations introduce stringent new routing protocols for decisions involving potential revenue losses, unbudgeted expenditures, and lucrative state concessions related to land, minerals, and forests.


To enforce this rigorous oversight, the Chief Minister has now been granted the formal, unhindered right to summon official documents, files, and related records from any government department at his discretion. The updated rules make it legally binding for the respective departmental ministers and their top secretaries to surrender these requested files without delay. While ministers will continue to manage the day-to-day operations of their assigned portfolios, the boundaries of authority and administrative responsibilities of the Chief Minister, the cabinet, the Chief Secretary, and departmental secretaries have now been rigidly codified to prevent insubordination or bureaucratic friction.


Politically, this restructuring serves as a double-edged sword for the ruling Mahayuti alliance. On one hand, the centralisation of command enables the Chief Minister’s Office to rapidly expedite crucial decision-making, aggressively clear policy bottlenecks, and project a unified, decisive governmental stance ahead of high-stakes local elections. On the other hand, the move is quietly breeding deep-seated unease among coalition partners.

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