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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.

Dynastic Decay

Few political families have commanded as much reverence or wielded as much unchecked power as the Gandhis. For decades, the Congress party has wrapped itself in the cloak of sacrifice and legacy embodied by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. But now, that cloak lies in tatters. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed its first chargesheet naming Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as accused numbers one and two in the National Herald money laundering case. It is a moment of reckoning not just for the family, but for the party itself.


The allegations are damning. According to the chargesheet, Sonia and Rahul orchestrated a “criminal conspiracy” to usurp real estate assets worth Rs. 2,000 crores (now estimated at over Rs. 5,000 crore) that belonged to Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the erstwhile publisher of the now-defunct National Herald newspaper. The vehicle for this alleged act was a private firm, Young Indian Ltd (YIL), in which mother and son together hold a 76 percent stake. The ED charges that 99 percent of AJL’s shares were transferred to YIL for a mere Rs. 50 lakh - an astonishing undervaluation of what were essentially public assets held in trust.


If proven, this transfer was a brazen attempt to turn legacy into loot. While YIL was ostensibly a Section 25 not-for-profit company, the ED’s probe found no charitable activities, no philanthropic outreach and no justification for its existence other than the accumulation of ill-gotten property.


It is worth recalling that AJL was not an ordinary enterprise. Founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, it was a repository of the Congress party’s intellectual and journalistic legacy. What remains today is not a newspaper but a ghost company used to launder influence into asset ownership.


The properties in question, many located in prime urban zones, were meant to serve the public interest. Instead, they appear to have been quietly transferred into private hands, allegedly controlled by India’s most powerful political family.


The Gandhis, predictably, have denied all wrongdoing. So has the Congress party, which has rushed to cry vendetta politics. But that dog-eared script no longer convinces. To cry persecution in the face of legal scrutiny amounts to a cynical refusal to acknowledge the rot within.


The party’s slavish loyalty to its dynasts is troubling. That a party which once governed India for decades cannot summon the courage to debate internal leadership is a testament to its arrested evolution.


Therein lies the deeper malaise. The Congress is no longer a party of ideas or ideals. It is a family trust, run by a dynasty that demands loyalty in exchange for nostalgia. With this chargesheet, the Gandhis lose whatever moral claim they once had to righteousness. The Congress must stop mourning the loss of the old order and start building something new. If not for the country, then at least for its own survival. The Gandhis have had their turn. India deserves better. So does the Congress.

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