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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.

Judicial Reckoning

In a system where justice is often delayed and too frequently denied, the Bombay High Court has struck a blow for accountability. The court has ordered the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against five police personnel involved in what it strongly implied was a custodial murder. The deceased, Akshay Shinde, stood accused of sexually assaulting two minor girls in Badlapur – a case that had rocked Maharashtra.


Shinde, while being transported from Taloja prison to a court in Kalyan, was allegedly shot dead in an encounter in September last year. The police claimed he had snatched a weapon and opened fire, an all-too-familiar script in the theatre of extrajudicial justice. But this time, the state’s narrative unravelled. A magistrate’s inquiry into the incident found credible evidence to suggest that the encounter was staged. It concluded that Shinde succumbed to bullet injuries inflicted by officers including a senior inspector, an assistant inspector, two constables and a driver - all from Thane crime branch.


The High Court, in ordering a special investigation team under the joint commissioner of police, minced no words. It chastised the government for its “reluctance” to register an FIR, warning that such obstinacy undermined the rule of law and erodes public faith in the justice system.


Custodial deaths remain a chilling feature of Indian policing, often brushed under the rug with bureaucratic deflections and delayed probes. Between 2017 and 2022, India witnessed over 800 custodial deaths, with barely a fraction resulting in convictions. Maharashtra, despite its modernising rhetoric, has consistently featured among the worst offenders.


That the Fadnavis-led Mahayuti government chose to shield the officers by citing an ongoing CID investigation and a retired judge’s commission exposes the hollow core of its commitment to accountability. The government’s counsel even sought a stay on the court’s order, a move the judges rightly rebuffed. At best, this was bureaucratic inertia. At worst, it was a cynical attempt to stall justice.


The case touches a raw nerve in India’s criminal justice system: can the state police itself? Commissions and CID inquiries rarely bring closure. FIRs, though often misused elsewhere, serve as the bare minimum procedural gatekeeping in cases involving the state’s own excesses. That the court had to intervene to mandate even this first step is an indictment not just of the state police, but of the political executive overseeing it.


Devendra Fadnavis cannot claim ignorance for the incident. As Home Minister in the coalition government, the buck stops with him. His government’s attempted obstruction of judicial orders only strengthens the perception that encounters are not anomalies but acceptable shortcuts. In the process, the state risks losing its moral legitimacy.


The High Court’s intervention offers a glimmer of hope that institutional integrity matters. Justice in this case will hinge not just on the probe, but on whether the state can wean itself off the culture of impunity that has come to define its law enforcement.

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