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By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 11:29:11 am

BJP’s zilla parishad surge leaves Shinde Sena sidelined

Mumbai: The political friction within Maharashtra’s ruling alliance has moved from hushed corridors to a public power struggle following Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s recent high-profile dash to the national capital. While Shinde spent his Delhi visit in closed-door deliberations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah—purportedly to protest being marginalised in regional power-sharing—the state BJP responded on Wednesday with a series of aggressive...

BJP’s zilla parishad surge leaves Shinde Sena sidelined

Mumbai: The political friction within Maharashtra’s ruling alliance has moved from hushed corridors to a public power struggle following Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s recent high-profile dash to the national capital. While Shinde spent his Delhi visit in closed-door deliberations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah—purportedly to protest being marginalised in regional power-sharing—the state BJP responded on Wednesday with a series of aggressive manoeuvres. Instead of a reconciliation, Shinde got a reality check in which his Shiv Sena was systematically outmanoeuvred and isolated across key zilla parishads (ZPs) in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Parbhani, and Sangli. This latest sequence of events underscores a rapidly changing dynamic in Maharashtra politics. Ever since Devendra Fadnavis assumed the Chief Minister’s office in December 2024, the BJP has adopted an increasingly assertive posture. Shinde and his camp are visibly struggling to counter this dominance. The political manoeuvring in Parbhani perfectly illustrates the BJP’s new strategy. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 24 seats. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) secured 15 seats, followed by the Shiv Sena with five. The opposition consisted of Shiv Sena (UBT) (six seats), Congress (three seats), and one independent candidate. Guardian Minister Meghana Borikar had initially indicated a plan to seize power alongside Shinde’s Shiv Sena while keeping the NCP out. Silent Moves However, the Congress silently attempted to engineer a broad anti-BJP coalition, trying to unite the NCP, both Sena factions, and the independent member. Sensing the threat, the BJP went into a huddle with NCP leadership for a counter-strategy. Clear directives were sent to the district level. The BJP abruptly formed an alliance with the NCP. Consequently, the Shiv Sena, which had been aggressively eyeing the ZP chairperson’s post, was unceremoniously shown the door. Tight Race A similar drama unfolded in Sambhajinagar. The alliance broke down at the very last moment. Local leaders failed to reach a consensus about the chairperson post. Numbers were extremely tight. The BJP held 23 members, while the Shiv Sena commanded 22. When state-level power-sharing formulas were rejected locally, the BJP took drastic action. Leveraging assistance from the NCP, the BJP successfully engineered a split within the opposition alliance. It managed to win over the crucial votes of three UBT members and one NCP-Sharad Pawar member. On Wednesday, both the BJP and the Shiv Sena filed rival nominations for the top post. Ultimately, the BJP’s tactical cross-voting strategy prevailed. The party walked away with both the chairperson and deputy chairperson positions, leaving the Sena empty-handed. The situation in Sangli further damaged the fragile relationship between the two ruling partners. In Sangli, the NCP-SP successfully bagged the chairperson post. The Shiv Sena accused the BJP of sabotage. It was claimed that the BJP deliberately refused to back the Sena candidate and decided to field its own candidate at the eleventh hour. The last-minute entry split the votes of the ruling alliance and turned the regional equations decisively in favour of the NCP-SP.

Cousin Clutch

Uddhav Thackeray’s politics, cloaked more in his pride than in ideological rigidity, has now descended into unvarnished desperation. The spectacle on the 59th Foundation Day of the two Shiv Sena factions laid bare not only the erosion of Uddhav’s authority but also the hollowness of his leadership. With his outfit – the Shiv Sena (UBT) – facing fragmentation, his corporators deserting him and his base steadily crumbling, Uddhav made a public and almost plaintive appeal to his estranged cousin Raj Thackeray of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).


With the BMC polls looming, Uddhav’s overture smacks of survival instinct. Raj, the very man who was forced out of Shiv Sena in late 2005 due to Uddhav’s opaque ascent within the party hierarchy, now finds himself being courted as a potential saviour. But unlike 2006, the roles are reversed. Uddhav is no longer the reluctant prince crowned by Balasaheb, but a beleaguered warlord without a kingdom, saddled with strange, ideologically opposed bedfellows like the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) and the Congress. The symbolism could not be more ironic as a man once dismissive of Raj’s charisma is now grovelling for a tie-up with him, hoping that Marathi votes can be reunited to salvage his political ruin.


Uddhav’s choice in 2019 to ally with Sharad Pawar’s NCP (then undivided) and the Congress was seen as a clear betrayal of the mandate he fought for alongside the BJP. The optics of that ideological somersault were never convincing.


Uddhav cast aside Hindutva for secularism, only to be punished for it by his own rank and file when Eknath Shinde, along with most of the Sena MLAs, split the Shiv Sena in 2022 in a clear referendum on Uddhav’s stewardship. Today, bereft of the original party’s name, symbol, and most of its legislators, Uddhav clings to borrowed moral legitimacy and inherited nostalgia.


But if Uddhav’s outreach to Raj is reflects his helplessness, it is no less ironic. For Raj Thackeray too is a diminished figure.


Once styled as Balasaheb’s ideological and oratorical heir, he now wanders Maharashtra’s political wastelands in a desperate bid to remain relevant. His MNS, forged in the fires of nativism, rode briefly on a wave of anti-north Indian sentiment in the late 2000s, gaining notoriety for assaults on migrants. Since then, Raj’s fortunes have waned. The MNS was routed in the 2014 and 2019 elections to be reduced to a fringe player.


Uddhav hopes that Raj’s appeal in municipal wards of Mumbai might plug his leaking vote bank. In the unlikely event the alliance does happen, it will not be borne of conviction but of exhaustion.


What remains of the once-mighty Shiv Sena is a tale of two men trapped in the myths of legacy, reduced to scavenging relevance in the alleyways of municipal politics. Marathi voters, long courted with emotional blackmail and street-level theatrics, deserve better than recycled bloodline politics. Raj may or may not extend his hand. But no union of weakness can produce strength.


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