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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.

Fading Authority

Updated: Mar 4, 2025

The harassment of BJP leader and Union Minister Raksha Khadse’s daughter and her friends in Jalgaon district last week transcends the confines of a mere law enforcement failure to be an indictment of a crumbling system. That the perpetrators, now facing charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and POCSO Act, were emboldened enough to harass the daughter of a senior leader from the ruling party despite her security detail points to a state where criminals have lost their fear of consequence.


The brazenness of the crime is matched only by its implications. If the offspring of a Union minister is unsafe in her own political stronghold, what does that say about the security of ordinary women? The incident lays bare the deteriorating state of women’s safety in Maharashtra and further tarnishes the image of the Mahayuti government in general and the Home Department led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in particular. It is a damning commentary on an administration that projects itself as tough on crime while failing to rein in lawlessness even in its own ranks.


That one of the accused has four prior cases registered against him makes it clear that the system has not been working as it should. Reports suggest that these men had been harassing schoolgirls regularly. Khadse herself revealed that her daughter had been targeted at another public event just days earlier. And yet, no action was taken then, allowing the perpetrators to act with impunity despite the fact that Jalgaon has long been the stronghold of the Khadse clan.


The case has also exposed the uncomfortable political linkages of the accused. The suspects are reportedly associated with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, an ally of the ruling BJP. This makes it politically awkward for the Mahayuti government. While Fadnavis has assured strict action, his words ring hollow in the face of rising crimes against women in Maharashtra, given the revelations in Khadse’s daughter’s come soon after the infamous Pune bus rape incident. The Congress has already pounced on the issue, condemning the government’s failure to ensure safety even for a minister’s family.


There is an irony that is hard to miss here. Last year, Maharashtra made history by appointing Sujata Saunik as its first woman Chief Secretary. Incidentally, Saunik had once served as the district collector of Jalgaon, and her appointment as CS represents a symbolic milestone for women in governance. But what does her appointment signify if women in the state, whether the daughters of ministers or ordinary citizens, cannot walk freely without fear of harassment?


The incident in Muktainagar underscores the stark gap between token gestures of empowerment and the grim reality on the ground. It exposes the hollowness of the promises made by the Mahayuti, which won a thumping mandate in the Assembly polls last year. It exposes the hollowness of the Mahayuti’s claims of progress, where the appointment of a woman to the highest bureaucratic post coincides with the state’s inability to protect its women. Unless law enforcement agencies act decisively, the promise of women’s empowerment will remain just that - a promise, unfulfilled and meaningless.

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