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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.

Divergent loyalties

Updated: Oct 30, 2024

BJP

Once lording over the BJP in North Maharashtra, the Khadse family has witnessed flip-flops, corruption cases and embarrassing situations in recent years. Sisters-in-law on opposite sides of the political spectrum while the patriarch, who was waiting to return to his parent party, was given the cold shoulder, forcing him to stay back where he is.


It surprised many and upset his followers when Eknath Khadse, a loyal BJP worker and former minister, quit the party and moved to the undivided NCP in 2020 on the heels of alleged corruption charges. He had started his career as a sarpanch of Kothali village and entered the legislative assembly for the first time in 1987 and since then, has won six consecutive elections till 2019 from the Muktainagar constituency in Jalgaon.


Until his fall from grace within the BJP in 2016, Khadse had been a BJP worker since the 1980s and helped grow the party’s base in North Maharashtra. He was made minister in 1995 during the Shiv Sena-BJP government and has held several key positions over the decades. He was the leader of the opposition between 2009 and 2014 and was commended for his efficient work. When the BJP won the elections in 2014, Khadse had openly shown his desire to become the chief minister. Charges of corruption in a land deal and accusations of misusing his office forced Khadse to resign from the government in 2016. Activist Anjali Damania had led the protest against him after a Pune-based realtor accused him of land grabbing and abusing his position as the revenue minister to get land at lower-than-market prices for his family. Even earlier, he was ridiculed for wasting water to create a temporary helipad for his tour of a drought-stricken Latur when the people were thirsty in the parched region.


In 2020, Khadse quit the BJP and joined the undivided NCP along with his daughter Rohini Khewalkar. Khadse’s party colleagues and workers resented his act of cornering key positions for his family members. While his wife was made director of Mahananda, a milk cooperative, his daughter-in-law Raksha has been a BJP Member of Parliament since 2014. Raksha, a three-time MP from Raver is now a minister state at the centre. Before his daughter Rohini followed him into the NCP, she had contested the assembly elections from Muktainagar in 2019 but had lost to the Shiv Sena candidate.


Earlier this year, Khadse had expressed a desire to be welcomed back into the BJP but the party showed no inclination.

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