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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.

Parivar Prevails

Updated: Apr 1, 2025

For over a decade, Narendra Modi has loomed over Indian politics like a colossus who appeared to transcend party structures and ideological hierarchies. The BJP was remade in his image, its electoral fortunes tied to his persona, its slogans infused with his personal guarantee. But the Prime Minister’s recent visit to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in Nagpur suggests a shift in power dynamics. Modi’s effusive praise for the Sangh and its leaders was more than mere homage; it was an emphatic acknowledgment of the ideological parent that nurtured his rise.


Modi’s pilgrimage to the RSS headquarters was conspicuous. In his eleven years as Prime Minister, he had pointedly kept the Sangh at arm’s length, maintaining a careful balance between ideological fidelity and political autonomy. The RSS had watched with unease as Modi fashioned himself into the sole architect of the BJP’s success. The 2024 general election, however, proved a chastening moment. The party’s underwhelming performance, falling short of the bombastic ‘400-plus’ seat target, forced a reckoning. The RSS, long content to exert its influence from the shadows, reasserted its role as custodian of the movement.


The strain in relations had been evident for some time. The Sangh bristled at Modi’s personality cult, his relentless self-promotion eclipsing the BJP’s traditional ethos of collective leadership. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s veiled rebukes in recent months hinted at this discontent. The tipping point came when BJP president J.P. Nadda declared that the party no longer required the RSS’s handholding, an assertion that did not sit well with the organization that sees itself as the ideological spine of Hindu nationalism. When the BJP faltered in the elections, the Sangh seized its opportunity to recalibrate the balance of power.


Modi’s visit to Nagpur was thus a conciliatory gesture, an attempt to placate a parent grown weary of its wayward offspring. His lavish tributes to the RSS were an implicit recognition of its enduring authority. Modi’s presence alongside Bhagwat, their convivial exchanges, were a carefully choreographed display of unity after months of visible tension.


At stake in this rapprochement is the question of who will lead the BJP. With Nadda’s extended tenure as party president at an end, the appointment of his successor will be a litmus test of Modi’s ability to maintain his grip. The RSS, emboldened by recent events, has insisted on a leader of its choosing who is not a mere loyalist to Modi and Amit Shah.


For the Sangh, this moment is a reaffirmation of its role as the guiding force of the Hindu nationalist movement. It has endured for a century not by playing second fiddle to political leaders but by shaping them, moulding them into instruments of its vision. Modi’s rise was not an exception to this rule. His return to Nagpur, hat in hand, confirms an iron law of the BJP-RSS relationship: no leader is indispensable, and no individual is bigger than the Parivar.

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