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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.

Eleven Maoists lay down arms in Gondia

More than 100 Red rebels surrender in central India

Naxals arrive to surrender their weapons before police in Gondia district, on Friday. Pic: PTI
Naxals arrive to surrender their weapons before police in Gondia district, on Friday. Pic: PTI

Gondia (Maharashtra): As the Centre’s deadline to crush Maoism by March 2026 approaches, the Red brigade suffered another setback with 11 Maoists laying down arms in Gondia district.

 

This has taken the count of surrenders to over 100 during this week in central India - with the CPI (Maoist) networks seen to be crumbling in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh – and the security forces gaining an upper hand.

 

According to Gadchiroli Range Deputy IGP Ankit Goyal, among the 11 is one Vinod Sayyana, 40, a senior Maoist cadre from Karimnagar in Telangana, who carried a bounty of Rs 25 lakhs. He gave himself up with an AK-47 assault rifle.

 

The entire surrendered group belonged to the dreaded Darekasa Dalam, which is the most active unit in the MMC zone of Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh.

 

“With the latest surrender, a majority of the insurgents, who carried a total reward of Rs 89 Lakhs, have now given up violence and are prepared to join the national mainstream. It is a decisive blow dealt to the outfit’s operational strength on the ground,” Goyal told the media on Friday.

 

The others, including at least four women rebels, are identified as: Rani alias Rame Yesu Narote (30), Sheila Chamru Madavi (40) and Ritu Bhima Dodi (20), Shevanti Raisingh Pandre (32), Pandu Pusu Wadde (35), Santu alias Tijauram Dharamsahay Poretti (35), Kashiram Rajya Bantula (62), Nakke Suklu Kara (55), Sannu Mudiyam (27), Sadu Pulai Sotti (30).

 

According to officials, the last week of November alone has witnessed over 100 Maoists - carrying cumulative rewards exceeding Rs 1.50 crore - renouncing violence and returning to the mainstream across Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, historically regarded as the epi-centre of Maoist insurgency, with spillover in other states.

 

Chhattisgarh witnesses surrenders

Several hardcore Maoists also shunned violence in Chhattisgarh, among them was Saroj alias Malku Sodhi, a divisional committee member with an Rs 8-lakh reward, and a group of area committee members Bhupesh alias Sanak Ram Furami, Prakash, Kamlesh alias Jhitru Yadav, Janni alias Raymati Salam, Santosh, and Ramsheela alias Bukli Salam - each with bounties of Rs 5 lakh.

 

The most symbolic surrender was of Chaitu alias Shyam Dada, 63, a member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) – the local Maoists’ highest decision-making. His return to normal life at a senior age underscores the disenchantment with Maoist ideology, fatigue, sustained security operations and intensified outreach campaigns by the officialdom, and the looming deadline on all outlaws still left in the jungles.

 

 


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