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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.

Puzzle of Maratha Quota

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

Maratha Quota

Around 40 years ago, Mathadi Kamgar Union leader Annasaheb Patil first began the Maratha reservation agitation. The demand has time and again come up, mostly around elections making its direct impact across Maharashtra. Since late August last year, 41-year-old Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil hailing from drought-prone Marathwada region, has brought the Eknath Shinde government to its knees by demanding blanket reservation in education and government jobs for all Marathas in the State.


A year ago on September 1, a lathi-charge on protesters demanding Maratha reservation altered the course of Maharashtra’s politics against the ruling Mahayuti, leading to a wipeout of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Marathwada in recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, and did significant damage to the candidates of its allies Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Shiv Sena.  The immediate trigger for a renascent Maratha quota agitation was a violent fracas last year between protesters and police in the Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district.


The Maratha population enjoys political dominance in the state. A land-owning community, Marathas are estimated to constitute over 33 percent of the state control over most sugar cooperatives in the state. This three-decade-old demand, now revived by Jarange-Patil, went out of the state’s control with sporadic bandhs being announced across many districts. In some places, the agitation turned violent with the police resorting to lathi-charge on the protesters, further worsening the situation. With state assembly elections in sight, the vexed problem of Maratha reservation demand is once again back to dominate the state politics. For the past two months, political leaders across parties have been making a beeline to meet Jarange-Patil extending support.


Manoj Jarange-Patil, the Maratha agitator, mostly unknown until his first agitation last year, has now become a household name, with the agitation taking an aggressive turn across the state. Jarange-Patil, who has been active in Maratha politics for over a decade, says he is an “apolitical person”, working for the welfare of his community. One of the primary demands of this agitation is the issuance of Kunbi caste certificates for all members of the Maratha community. The Maharashtra government issued a resolution saying that Kunbi caste certificates will be issued to all Marathas from the Marathwada region who possess the ‘Nizam-era’ documents such as revenue, educational and other supporting records, and if “Kunbi” is mentioned in their genealogy.


Throughout his protest, Jarange-Patil has maintained that he will continue the agitation until his demands are fully met. But he is willing to have a dialogue with the government. The government had called for an “all-party” meeting where it was decided that the home department would withdraw all the cases against the protesters in the Jalna district where the police had resorted to lathi charge.


In 2014, just months before the assembly elections, then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, relying on the then Congress Minister Narayan Rane committee report, brought in an ordinance introducing 16 percent reservation for the community, particularly in government jobs and education. This was taken forward by the Devendra Fadnavis-led government in 2014.


The Bombay HC, however, brought the 16 percent reservation down to 13 percent in jobs and 12 percent in education. In 2021, the SC quashed the quota altogether for Marathas. “Reservation cannot cross the 50 percent limit in states,” the court had opined. However, the Supreme Court blocked the Maratha reservation citing a 50 percent cap on total reservations it had set in 1992.


The majority of Maharashtra’s CMs since 1960 have been from the Maratha community. Between 2014 and 2019, nearly half of the total 288 MLAs were Marathas.

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