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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.

Stage Politics

It is no secret that the ruling Mahayuti alliance that governs Maharashtra is united in name more than nature. Brought together less by ideological kinship than by arithmetic and ambition, the coalition comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the breakaway faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) headed by Ajit Pawar has been riddled with mistrust, factional resentment and veiled rivalries despite their remarkable win in the 2024 Assembly polls.


These tensions spilled into public view recently at Raigad Fort to commemorate the 345th death anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj with Union Home Minister Amit Shah sharing the stage with Maharashtra’s top brass on the occasion. While Shah, Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde made speeches, Pawar, the second Deputy CM, was pointedly not invited to speak, prompting many to view it as Amit Shah’s snub to Ajit Pawar.


Pawar later claimed he had chosen not to speak because the event had run late. Few were convinced. The order of speeches - Shinde, then Fadnavis, then Shah - left little doubt about who was granted legitimacy and who was made to wait. The fact that even BJP MP Udayanraje Bhosale, a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji, was allowed to speak before Pawar only reinforced the hierarchy. For those watching closely, the message from Shah and the BJP central leadership was clear: when it comes to allies, ideological loyalty trumps convenience.


That loyalty still resides with Shinde. Though his recent grumbles about delayed file clearances and lopsided fund distribution have exposed fault lines within the coalition, his version of the Shiv Sena remains an ideological sibling of the BJP. At a private meeting in Pune the night before the Raigad event, Shinde reportedly told Shah that files related to Shiv Sena-held departments were languishing in the finance ministry controlled by Ajit Pawar. The Shiv Sena, Shinde complained, was being treated as a junior partner.


Pawar has denied the allegations, insisting that cooperation within Mahayuti remains smooth. The BJP’s decision to exclude him from the dais at Raigad suggests that Delhi remains wary of Pawar, who split the undivided NCP led by his uncle Sharad Pawar.


That wariness may stem from Pawar’s proximity to his uncle Sharad, whom he joined later that same day at a meeting of the Rayat educational institution. While the younger Pawar insisted this was routine business, the optics - on the same day he was diplomatically iced out of a major state event - were telling.


In contrast, Shinde was in full political bloom at Raigad. He reaffirmed his cultural credentials, echoed the BJP’s historical narrative and aligned himself once again with Hindutva sentiment.


For now, the Mahayuti lumbers on, held together by electoral calculus rather than political chemistry. The Raigad incident proves that the BJP retains a soft spot for the ideologically aligned Shinde while Pawar, for all his administrative heft, still struggles for political acceptance.

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