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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.

Old Foes, New Alliances

Updated: Oct 25, 2024

BJP

The shifting sands in Konkan’s electoral battlefield are seeing a number of former friends turn foes while yesterday’s enemies have become newfangled partners in marriages of political convenience. Nilesh Rane, ex-MP and son of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Narayan Rane, announced his decision to join the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and contest from the Kudal Assembly seat in the upcoming state elections.


The Kudal Assembly segment is currently held by the Rane clan’s long-time rival, Vaibhav Naik, who is from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT).


Ex-Maharashtra CM Narayan Rane, once a Shiv Sena strongman, and later Congressman, was the unchallenged king of his fiefdom of Kudal, being its legislator for six terms. However, when in the Congress, he was trounced comprehensively by Vaibhav Naik (in the undivided Shiv Sena) in the 2014 Assembly elections by a margin of more than 10,000 votes in a result that ultimately led to a Sena renascence in the Konkan region.


Now, with the Shiv Sena split vertically, Nilesh’s joining the Eknath Shinde-led Sena will give him an opportunity not just to politically rehabilitate himself but avenge his father’s defeat as well.

In the past, Rane’s fallouts with his former aides-turned-nemesis - Rajan Teli and Ravindra Phatak, and bête noire Deepak Kesarkar, had undercut his hold over the Konkan region.


Today, in a twist owing to political expediency, Kesarkar, who joined CM Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena after his revolt split Uddhav Thackeray’s undivided Sena, is now aligned with the BJP, placing him and Rane on the same side. Kesarkar, an erstwhile bete noire of Rane, is now banking on the latter’s support to retain his hold on the Sawantwadi Assembly segment, also part of the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency as Rane is the incumbent MP.


In the 2019 Assembly poll, Rane, who had just joined the BJP, had strained every sinew to beat candidates of the undivided Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray in the 14 Assembly segments in three districts of the Konkan. However, his efforts had come a cropper as the undivided Shiv Sena had effortlessly retained its strongholds, winning nine of 14 segments. At the time, Deepak Kesarkar beat independent candidate Rajan Teli, a close Rane aide, by 13,228 votes in Sawantwadi.


Today, in a supreme irony, Kesarkar – Rane’s foe-turned-friend – is likely to face BJP leader Rajan Teli, once Rane’s protégé, who recently joined Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT).


Adding to the byzantine political twists in this region is Kiran Samant, who is from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and has been fielded as the Mahayuti’s candidate for the Rajapur Assembly segment, also part of the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency.


At the time of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BJP, after much delay, had finally announced Union Minister Rane as the ruling Mahayuti coalition’s candidate for the contentious Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha seat, to the intense chagrin of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, which had staked its claim over the seat.


Kiran Samant, brother of Shinde camp Minister Uday Samant, had been eagerly vying for a ticket and was believed to be on the verge of rebellion. However, Kiran had taken a step back and ended up supporting Rane for the Lok Sabha.


He is now banking on Rane’s support for the Assembly election as quid pro quo. The clock is ticking to November 20, and the Konkan has never been more rife with intrigue.

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