top of page

By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 11:29:11 am

Mahayuti struggles with seat-sharing formula

Mumbai: The ruling Mahayuti alliance is currently navigating a treacherous political minefield. With the crucial Legislative Council elections rapidly approaching, deep-seated differences over seat-sharing have surfaced. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday offered a candid admission of these unresolved disputes. His statements underscore the immense pressure on the coalition partners. The state is preparing to vote for sixteen council seats and one bypoll seat in Nagpur. Voting is...

Mahayuti struggles with seat-sharing formula

Mumbai: The ruling Mahayuti alliance is currently navigating a treacherous political minefield. With the crucial Legislative Council elections rapidly approaching, deep-seated differences over seat-sharing have surfaced. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday offered a candid admission of these unresolved disputes. His statements underscore the immense pressure on the coalition partners. The state is preparing to vote for sixteen council seats and one bypoll seat in Nagpur. Voting is scheduled for June 18, with the all-important counting set for June 22. Addressing the media after inaugurating the Jawahar Balbhavan in Mumbai, Fadnavis sought to project a calm exterior. He emphasised that detailed discussions are still ongoing to evaluate various aspects of the electoral battle. He expressed confidence that the alliance would soon reach an amicable solution. However, the specific geographies he mentioned reveal the exact fault lines. Negotiations with the Shiv Sena are heavily concentrated on Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Nashik. Meanwhile, talks with the Nationalist Congress Party are focused squarely on Pune. Alliance Arithmatic The arithmetic of the alliance is proving incredibly difficult to balance. The Shiv Sena had firmly demanded seven seats even as the BJP was offering only 3. They justify this claim by pointing to their strong support bases in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Sambhajinagar, Ratnagiri, Nashik, and Yavatmal. The Bharatiya Janata Party has a vastly different calculation. The BJP plans to assert its dominance by contesting twelve seats. This aggressive stance would leave only three seats for the Sena and a mere two seats for the Sunetra Pawar-led NCP. With the nomination process already underway, the clock is ticking loudly for the Mahayuti leadership. This intense internal friction prompted a sudden political maneuver by Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde. He flew to New Delhi over the weekend amid the escalating deadlock. Sena sources indicated that Shinde sought the intervention of the BJP’s central leadership. A Sena minister, however, quickly tried to downplay the optics of the trip. He insisted that Shinde travelled for an unscheduled programme before heading to Bengaluru for a planned event. Despite these official denials, the timing strongly suggests a high-stakes crisis intervention. Bitter Conflict The most bitter conflict within the alliance centers on the Thane local authorities constituency. Both the BJP and the Shinde-led Sena are fiercely staking their claims. A BJP legislator recently argued that political tickets should be distributed based strictly on numerical strength. He pointed out that the BJP commands 444 corporators in the region. In stark contrast, the Shinde-led Sena and the allied Jijau organisation possess a combined total of only 346 corporators. However, political reality in Maharashtra is rarely dictated by numbers alone. The Shinde faction views Thane as its emotional and traditional stronghold. Surrendering this territory to their alliance partner is considered politically unthinkable. This local dispute is already threatening to severely damage the broader coalition. A Sena Member of Parliament recently issued a stark warning regarding the upcoming Thane Zilla Parishad elections. He boldly asserted that Sena workers are fully prepared to fight alone and hoist their saffron flag, regardless of the alliance’s survival. The battle lines are extending further across the state map. The Sena is demanding the Jalgaon seat, which the BJP is equally determined to contest. Furthermore, reports suggest the Sena is preparing to unilaterally field a candidate in Raigad. This would further complicate the already delicate negotiations. Despite these mounting tensions, BJP minister Girish Mahajan has publicly maintained that the deadlock will be resolved shortly. A final decision now rests on an impending high-level meeting between Fadnavis, Shinde, and Sunetra Pawar. MVA Crisis Meanwhile, the political turbulence is not restricted to the Mahayuti alliance. The opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi is dealing with its own severe crisis in the Vidarbha region. The Chandrapur-Gadchiroli council seat has triggered frantic political poaching. As many as sixty corporators and Zilla Parishad members from the Congress party reportedly went missing recently. Congress leaders have directly accused BJP legislator Banti Bhangadiya of orchestrating this disappearance. They allege he has shifted the corporators to an undisclosed location to manipulate the voting outcome. The Congress has responded with an aggressive counter-narrative. Senior Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar made a startling claim that over one hundred BJP corporators are secretly in contact with him. While Wadettiwar strategically hid their exact whereabouts, his statement highlighted a critical vulnerability. He suggested that the BJP is also suffering from severe internal factionalism. Wadettiwar warned that these hidden rifts will ultimately cost the ruling party dearly in the forthcoming elections.

The Left’s Hindu Blind Spot

Updated: Apr 1, 2025

Pinarayi Vijayan’s reaction to the ‘Empuraan’ controversy exposes his party’s double standards on free speech and tolerance.

Pinarayi Vijayan
Kerala

Kerala’s Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, has never shied away from branding himself as a champion of free speech – that is, so long as it suits his political leanings. His enthusiastic endorsement of L2: Empuraan, a film that has sparked national outrage for its alleged anti-Hindu and anti-BJP overtones, is a glaring example of his party’s selective outrage. Even as the controversy surrounding the film refuses to die down, Vijayan chose to celebrate its release rather than acknowledge the concerns raised by critics. This ideological hypocrisy has long defined the Left’s approach to dissent in India.


At the heart of the Empuraan controversy lies a sequence depicting the 2002 Gujarat riots, with a key antagonist allegedly modelled on a right-wing figure. Unsurprisingly, the Sangh Parivar and the BJP have slammed the film for peddling a divisive, one-sided narrative. The RSS-affiliated Organiser magazine has called it “a propaganda vehicle designed to deepen religious fault lines.”


Vijayan, however, preferred to indulge in theatrical posturing. Watching the film with his family and publicly endorsing it sends a clear message: narratives that align with his ideological leanings are acceptable, no matter how controversial. Yet, this is the same leader who has, time and again, condemned other artistic expressions for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), which Vijayan leads in Kerala, has a long history of taking offense when its own ideological comfort zone is breached. When The Kerala Story - a film critical of radicalization in the state - was released, the CPI(M) joined the chorus calling for a ban, dismissing it as “propaganda.” But when Empuraan triggers backlash for its portrayal of the Gujarat riots, the same party suddenly transforms into a torchbearer of artistic freedom.


The broader problem is the Left’s glaring double standards when it comes to Hindu sentiments. In the name of secularism, leftist leaders and intellectuals have consistently dismissed or trivialized concerns raised by Hindus while championing the grievances of other communities. The Empuraan episode is merely the latest example of this lopsided approach. When controversies arise over films that critique Islam or Christianity, the Left rushes to invoke sensitivity and calls for restraint. However, when Hindu sensibilities are hurt, those protesting are branded as intolerant, regressive, or, worse, communal.


Mohanlal’s decision to issue a public apology and the reported removal of 17 scenes - including riot sequences and depictions of violence against women - suggest that even the filmmakers recognized the contentious nature of their work. The Central Board of Film Certification’s (CBFC) intervention further underscores the validity of the concerns raised. Vijayan’s silence on this development is telling. For a leader who claims to stand against censorship and for free expression, he has shown no interest in defending the artistic autonomy of a film that has been forced to undergo edits. If anything, his endorsement of Empuraan while ignoring the backlash it has generated reeks of political opportunism.


The Kerala Chief Minister’s stance on Empuraan is emblematic of a deeper issue within Indian politics: the weaponization of artistic freedom. The Left routinely invokes free speech as a defencewhen its narratives are under fire but quickly discards the principle when confronted with dissenting viewpoints. Vijayan’s selective outrage reflects this broader hypocrisy. If free speech is to mean anything in India, it cannot be conditional upon ideological convenience.


The Empuraan controversy ultimately is about the deeper fault lines in Indian discourse. The backlash against its alleged biases is not an isolated reaction but a reflection of growing resentment against the systematic dismissal of Hindu concerns. Pinarayi Vijayan, with his glaring double standards, has only reinforced this perception. Until political leaders apply the same standards of tolerance across the ideological spectrum, their proclamations of secularism and free speech will continue to ring hollow.

Comments

bottom of page