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By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 4:59:11 pm

Fadnavis reins in Sena’s Marathi push

AI generated image Mumbai: The ruling Mahayuti coalition in Maharashtra is witnessing a delicate political balancing act, with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis increasingly overriding key decisions of alliance partners, particularly the Shiv Sena, while simultaneously attempting to placate them on other fronts. The tension within the alliance came to the fore on Thursday when Fadnavis stepped in to dilute a controversial mandate enforced by Shiv Sena Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik, which...

Fadnavis reins in Sena’s Marathi push

AI generated image Mumbai: The ruling Mahayuti coalition in Maharashtra is witnessing a delicate political balancing act, with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis increasingly overriding key decisions of alliance partners, particularly the Shiv Sena, while simultaneously attempting to placate them on other fronts. The tension within the alliance came to the fore on Thursday when Fadnavis stepped in to dilute a controversial mandate enforced by Shiv Sena Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik, which required auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers in Mumbai to possess basic Marathi language proficiency. The Transport Department’s enforcement drive, which threatened non-Marathi-speaking drivers with suspension or cancellation of their licences, sparked outrage among North Indian drivers who form a sizeable section of the public transport workforce in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Protests brought parts of Mumbai, including Kandivali and Malad, to a standstill. Recognising the potential electoral fallout, Fadnavis intervened, saying drivers need not be “experts” in Marathi. He also extended the grace period for drivers to acquire a working knowledge of the language to one year, effectively diluting Sarnaik’s hardline stance. Fadnavis announced the decision after a delegation of transport operators met him. The episode highlights the conflicting political compulsions of the Mahayuti partners. Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena is keen to pursue a pro-Marathi, “sons of the soil” agenda to consolidate its traditional voter base and counter the rival Shiv Sena (UBT) faction led by Uddhav Thackeray. The BJP, however, relies heavily on North Indian and migrant voters in the MMR, particularly as crucial civic and state elections approach. Any aggressive regional policy that alienates this constituency could have electoral consequences for the party. The Marathi language issue is not an isolated instance of Fadnavis stepping in to override decisions associated with the Shiv Sena. It fits into a broader pattern of the chief minister’s administration reviewing or reversing several initiatives of the previous government headed by Shinde. In April 2026, the BJP-led Environment Department, headed by Minister Pankaja Munde, scrapped 14 lake conservation projects, 11 of which had been cleared during Shinde’s tenure, and ordered recovery of more than Rs 73 crore. The Fadnavis government has also modified several initiatives introduced by the previous regime. In January 2025, it altered Shinde’s three-course school meal plan, placing the responsibility on local school management committees to raise funds for sweet dishes. In April 2025, the government scrapped the ‘One State, One Uniform’ policy for schools. A Rs 3,200-crore tender for mechanised housekeeping services at government hospitals, issued under the Shinde government, was also stayed. Yet, Fadnavis remains conscious of the need to preserve the fragile alliance. To manage growing resentment within the Sena, he has adopted what can be described as a ‘blow hot, blow cold’ approach — overriding decisions when they clash with the BJP’s broader political interests while offering political concessions on other fronts. One such move was the recent appointment of Shiv Sena leader Bharat Gogawale as Guardian Minister of the politically important Raigad district, ending a 19-month-long tussle over the post. At the same time, the Mahayuti government recently reduced the powers exercised by Guardian Ministers over District Planning Committee (DPC) funds, directing that 70 per cent of the funds be allocated directly to local MLAs. The move is aimed at reducing the concentration of financial powers with individual ministers. As the Mahayuti navigates these competing interests, Fadnavis has also instructed alliance partners to resolve disputes internally and avoid public sparring. However, the latest confrontation over the Marathi language requirement underscores the limits of that arrangement. While Fadnavis continues to use his authority to protect the BJP’s broader electoral interests, the Shiv Sena remains under pressure to assert its regional identity and distinguish itself from the Thackeray faction. With elections approaching, balancing these competing political priorities is likely to remain one of the biggest challenges for the Mahayuti government.

Saffron Reset

For months, speculation of a chill between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has animated India’s commentariat. This was particularly pronounced in the aftermath of the 2024 Lok Sabha election where the BJP, despite emerging as the single-largest party, had failed to form the government on its own. This fuelled talk of a ‘cold war’ between the ideological fountainhead and the political executive. It is against this backdrop that RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale’s recent remarks, praising Modi as the Sangh’s “best representative” acquire significance far beyond their polite phrasing.


Hosabale choice of words is revealing; he said that Modi expressed Sangh ideals in his “own unique ways”whether through campaigns such as “Ek Ped Maa ke Naam” or broader programmes like Atmanirbhar Bharat.


It implied that while the Sangh may speak in the vocabulary of long-term cultural transformation, the Modi-led BJP government spoke in the grammar of governance and that the two were complementary rather than contradictory.


Hosabale’s public endorsement of the Prime Minister comes after a period of evident recalibration within the broader saffron ecosystem. The relationship between Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has been the subject of intense scrutiny for some time now. It has been framed as a contest between centralised political authority and decentralised ideological guidance.


Following the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, questions surfaced about the BJP’s organisational coherence and the distribution of influence within the ruling ecosystem. The months immediately following the Lok Sabha poll results saw a remarkable turnaround in the BJP’s fortunes as the saffron party scored stunning victories in key state Assembly elections like Haryana and Maharashtra. The RSS’ contribution in campaigning for these polls had played no mean part in this stunning comeback.


Modi’s dominance, bolstered by the BJP’s successive electoral successes and a carefully cultivated personal brand, had, in the eyes of senior leaders within the Sangh, tilted the equilibrium too far towards personality-driven politics. Given that the RSS has long been accustomed to shaping the movement’s direction from behind the scenes, it had grown wary of an increasingly centralised leadership in New Delhi.


Observers have claimed that while the Sangh stepped in to restore the BJP’s fortunes, it ‘clipped’ the wings of Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. The Sangh is not given to effusive public praise of individuals, preferring instead the anonymity of collective discipline over any form of ‘cult of personality.’ That Hosabale has now chosen to underline Modi’s credentials as a ‘swayamsevak’ is a calculated signal and a reassurance to cadres that the ideological compact between the RSS and the BJP remains intact.


This matters for cadres as the strength of the Sangh-BJP compact has always rested on clarity of purpose and unity of direction. Hosabale’s praise of Modi seeks to dispel any doubts between the two entities, projecting alignment between them without denying diversity of approach.

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