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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.

Family Feint

In Maharashtra’s endlessly theatrical politics, the prospect of a Thackeray reunion makes for irresistible drama. Uddhav Thackeray, the beleaguered chief of the Shiv Sena (UBT), and his estranged cousin Raj Thackeray, the equally beleaguered head of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), have signalled a willingness to mend fences. Each said he was prepared to put aside ‘minor differences’ for the greater good of Maharashtra. It sounded magnanimous. It also sounded suspiciously convenient.


Raj Thackeray, speaking on a podcast, made the first overture, declaring that for him Maharashtra’s interests trumped personal disputes. He offered to work with Uddhav, with the thinly veiled challenge whether the latter was ready to work with him. Uddhav responded in kind - but with conditions. Raj, he warned, must shun forces that were ‘anti-Maharashtra,’ a euphemism for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Sena (UBT)’s chief adversary.


The cousins’ feud dates back nearly two decades to 2005, when Raj quit the Shiv Sena after Uddhav, with their uncle Bal Thackeray’s blessing, was elevated over him. Raj’s formation of the MNS in 2006 was a public declaration that he would not serve under Uddhav’s shadow. That rift, personal and political, has shaped the trajectory of Maharashtra’s regional politics ever since.


Today, both cousins are diminished figures with their political fortunes at an all-time low. Uddhav, forced out of office by a BJP-backed coup, has lost both the chief ministership and the official Sena party symbol. Raj’s MNS, after early bursts of populist success, has shrivelled into an afterthought after having tried every coalition. The BJP’s dominance has left the once-powerful Thackeray name battered. Against this backdrop, talk of unity is less a stirring call to Marathi pride than a grim calculation for survival.


The real obstacle to a reunion is not ideology but ego. The fundamental question that drove them apart remains unresolved: who will lead? Raj, still bristling with a charisma Uddhav never quite matched, appears unwilling to subordinate himself. On Uddhav’s side, the emergence of his wife Rashmi Thackeray as a political strategist and son Aaditya Thackeray as heir apparent complicates any equation that might allow Raj a prominent role.


In short, both men want a reunion, but on their own terms. Sanjay Raut, Uddhav’s lieutenant, put a brave face by calling the Thackeray bond ‘permanent’ and hinting that Maharashtra would welcome a united front against the BJP’s encroachments. A joint Thackeray force could re-energize the Marathi vote and disrupt the BJP’s plans to further hollow out Maharashtra’s regional parties. But such a union would require rare self-effacement from two leaders whose careers have been defined by wounded pride.


Past experience suggests caution. The Thackerays are experts at creating public spectacles of rapprochement without following through. Temporary truces have often collapsed under the weight of old grievances and competing ambitions. If Uddhav and Raj truly wish to salvage their relevance, they must not only reconcile but reinvent themselves for a new political era.

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