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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.

Measured Authority

In his first pronouncement since taking the oath as India’s 52nd Chief Justice, Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai has made his presence felt with surgical precision. The Supreme Court led by CJI Gavai struck down a decades-old land transfer by the Maharashtra government, declaring it illegal. The case, long marred by allegations of corruption, centres around forest land in Pune transferred in 1998 to private developers under dubious circumstances. Now, with this judgment, the land must return to its rightful custodian, the forest department.


The Bench minced no words in attributing blame, pointing to the alarming speed with which the land’s use was altered. In India’s notoriously slow and opaque system, where even clear violations of environmental and land-use law are often papered over, the judgment is a stark rebuke.


CJI Gavai’s debut verdict is a clear declaration of his intent. For a system that frequently bows to the pressures of powerful interests, his intervention reminds the establishment that the law still has teeth. A Buddhist and the son of a Republican Party of India stalwart, Justice Gavai is only the second Dalit to helm the apex court. That he began his tenure by holding the powerful to account is significant in more ways than one.


Deeply shaped by the egalitarian ideals of B.R. Ambedkar, Gavai has long been known for his constitutional scholarship and practical jurisprudence. His legal journey - from government pleader in Nagpur to the Bombay High Court and then the Supreme Court - has been devoid of fanfare, yet rich in substance. Despite having authored nearly 300 judgments, his reputation is not for grandstanding but for clarity and precision. He was part of the Bench that upheld the government’s controversial demonetisation policy in 2016, as well as the one that recently dismantled the opaque electoral bonds scheme. His record signals a jurist who neither slavishly upholds state power nor recklessly subverts it, but examines each case on its constitutional merits.


Forest land has often been the currency in India’s political economy, quietly traded to cement patronage networks. The 1998 decision by the Maharashtra government is but one among hundreds across states where environmental safeguards were flouted under political pressure or bureaucratic collusion. The message from the top bench now is that such impunity will no longer be tolerated.


Justice Gavai’s background only adds weight to this message. His father, R.S. Gavai, was not just a parliamentarian and governor, but a lifelong voice for the marginalised. That legacy now echoes in the highest echelons of India’s judiciary. Prominent voices in the legal fraternity have already lauded the Chief Justice as being pragmatic and results-oriented. His first judgment lives up to that billing.


With just over six months in office, CJI Gavai has limited time but ample opportunity. If his opening salvo is any guide, India may be in for a phase of principled pragmatism where legality is reasserted not with flourish, but with firmness.

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