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...

min read

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.

The Cousins of Beed

Aditi Pai
Oct 19, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

When Pankaja Munde and Dhananjay Munde shared the stage on Dussehra this year, the reunion resulted in great surprise. For years, they had traded veiled barbs against each other. Until last year, Dhananjay, who is minister for agriculture in Maharashtra, was on the opposite side of the political spectrum as an NCP man while Pankaja is a member of the legislative council from the BJP. Now, on the cusp of the Maharashtra legislative assembly elections, the warring cousins, both, claiming a right to Gopinath Munde’s political legacy, had come together despite being in different political parties, albeit in the same Mahayuti.

Gopinath Munde cut his teeth in politics as a member of the ABVP during his student days. He is believed to have met Pramod Mahajan then who was also a budding youth leader of the saffron party. The two became friends and then family as Munde married Mahajan’s younger sister. Those who have watched the duo’s rise say that Munde truly stepped out of his more charismatic brother-in-law’s shadow when he undertook the ‘Sangharsh Yatra’ in 1994-95 against Sharad Pawar’s government, making the former chief minister his target. He managed to mobilise the masses and emerged as a formidable leader of the OBC. Munde went on to become the deputy chief minister in the first Shiv Sena-BJP government in the state from 1995-1999 and won a reputation for being an effective home minister. He was appreciated for supporting the Mumbai police in launching an aggressive counter-attack against the underworld that was running riot in the city back then. In contrast, Mahajan busied himself with the top echelons of the BJP, holding fort in New Delhi as a high-profile union minister and the party’s treasurer who was also the brain behind the ‘rath yatra’. Together, they stitched and preserved the BJP’s alliance with the Sena, maintaining a warm rapport with Bal Thackeray.

The Gen-next of the families have made their mark in politics. Mahajan’s daughter Poonam won the elections to the Lok Sabha in 2014 and 2019. Munde’s older daughter Pankaja was a former minister in Maharashtra but lost the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. His younger daughter Pritam won the Parliamentary elections from Beed by a record margin after Munde passed away in 2014. She was a MP for two terms but was denied a ticket this year. Munde’s nephew, Dhananjay worked at the grassroots level for the BJP in Beed for over a decade but quit the party in 2013 to join the NCP.

He was peeved by his uncle’s decision to overlook his claim to the Parli Lok Sabha constituency seat in the elections and instead, promote his daughter Pankaja. In 2023, he supported Ajit Pawar when the NCP was split and went on to become the agriculture minister in the current Mahayuti government. The two cousins have been warring for over a decade, each trying to reclaim the legacy left behind by Munde.

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