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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.

Poll Sentinel

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

As India’s Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Rajiv Kumar faces a daunting political landscape ahead of the Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assembly elections. In the former state particularly, where the electorate is polarized and major parties like Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are fractured, Kumar’s leadership will be tested like never before. His stewardship of the Election Commission (EC) has drawn scrutiny, but he has remained resolute in defending the integrity of the electoral process.


Kumar’s resolve came under the spotlight after the Congress party, defeated in last week’s Haryana Assembly elections, raised questions over the functioning of EVMs, particularly about the state of their batteries. The CEC dismissed the allegations with a rare blend of technical precision and disdain for unfounded claims.


Under Kumar’s leadership, the EC has continuously worked to demystify the functionality of EVMs. Ahead of the Lok Sabha, Kumar, deploying humour in the form of Urdu poetry, called upon political parties to maintain decorum even in the heat of the battle while emphasizing the robustness and security of EVMs.


Yet, while Kumar’s ability to manage technical disputes over voting machines is a hallmark of his leadership, he faces challenges of a different kind in Maharashtra. The schism within the Shiv Sena and the NCP has created a complex battlefield. On one side is Uddhav Thackeray’s faction and on the other is the breakaway group led by Eknath Shinde, which enjoys the backing of the BJP. Similarly, Sharad Pawar’s NCP is fragmented, with his nephew Ajit Pawar aligning with the ruling party. This division has raised concerns about how symbols and party identities will be handled in the electoral process.


The EC faced flak from Thackeray and Pawar senior after the poll panel was accused of doing the bidding of the ruling BJP in awarding the party name and poll symbols of both the Shiv Sena and the NCP to the rebel factions led by CM Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar.


A recent flashpoint involved NCP (Sharad Pawar)’s plea for greater visibility of their election symbol, a man blowing a trumpet, on EVM ballot units. Kumar granted this request but declined to freeze the symbol, thus balancing transparency with pragmatism.


In a country where technology, elections, and politics often intersect in contentious ways, Kumar’s most daunting challenge will not be handling machines but managing perception. The increasing prevalence of deepfakes and AI-driven disinformation campaigns could further complicate the EC’s mission of ensuring free and fair elections. Kumar is well aware of these dangers, having issued warnings against malicious narratives prior to the Lok Sabha elections.


Kumar’s leadership has been a mix of methodical rigor and principled firmness. But as Maharashtra goes to polls, he will need every ounce of that resolve. Far more than EVMs, ensuring a smooth election in one of India’s most politically fractured states will demand the Election Commission, under Kumar’s watchful eye, maintain its most precious asset: public trust.

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