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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.

Those helping BJP are Maharashtra’s enemies: Uddhav

Updated: Nov 7, 2024

Uddhav

Kolhapur: Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday hit the campaign trail and pitched the November 20 assembly polls as a battle between those who love Maharashtra and the ones who betray it as he reflected on the 2022 split in the party.


Thackeray hit out at his former ally BJP and its partners, saying those helping the national party are “enemies” of Maharashtra as he made a slew of promises to voters, including building a temple of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in every district if the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi comes to power.


Addressing his first rally of the 2024 assembly polls in Radhanagri in Kolhapur district -- the constituency of Prakash Abitkar, one of the 40 Shiv Sena MLAs who rebelled against his leadership -- he said those who love the state are aligned with the opposition MVA which comprises the Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP (SP).


Those helping the BJP, a constituent of the ruling Mahayuti bloc, are “enemies” of Maharashtra, Thackeray remarked.


Further attacking his one-time ally, the former CM accused the BJP of “selling” Maharashtra to Gujarat, where it is in power.


Thackeray claimed his government was toppled in June 2022 because he did not allow the BJP to harm Maharashtra and said not a single industrial project moved out of the state when the MVA was in office under his leadership.


“(Maharashtra assembly poll) is a fight between those who love the state and the ones who betray it,” Thackeray told the gathering.


The Shiv Sena (UBT) president started his speech with the sentence ‘Jamlelya Majhya Tamam Maharashtra Premi Bandhavanu, Matanu ani Baghinino’ (My Maharashtra loving brothers, mothers and sisters), seeking to position the electoral battle as a fight between “the ones who love the state and those who work against it”.


In his campaign speeches during the Lok Sabha polls in April-May, he would start his address with the sentence ‘My Maharashtra loving brothers, mothers and sisters’. It was contrary to his regular Hindutva-rooted ‘My Hindu brothers, mothers and sisters’ opening remarks at rallies, perhaps reflecting his alignment with the Congress and the NCP (SP) which project themselves as “secular”.


Referring to petitions filed by his party in the Supreme Court seeking disqualifications of rebel Sena MLAs, Thackeray emphasised he has still not got justice from the top judiciary and hence has come to people’s court for justice.


“I am not fighting for myself, but for you and Maharashtra,” the former CM insisted.

He accused the BJP of trying to divide people on the basis of religion and castes for the sake of power. Attacking the state’s Eknath Shinde-led dispensation, which assumed office after the fall of the MVA administration, Thackeray alleged the government works on “commission”.


Talking about the Mahayuti government’s flagship scheme for poor women, Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, Thackeray said police were not even ready to register the complaint of the mother of the girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted at a school in Badlapur in Thane district in August.


He said while the government is implementing the Ladki Bahin Yojana, under which underprivileged women are provided a monthly stipend of Rs 1,500, the inflation is spiralling, making essential commodities costly for common citizens.


Thackeray promised that if the MVA comes to power, every district in Maharashtra will have a temple of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The former CM said if possible, he will also build a temple dedicated to the 17th century Maratha warrior king in Surat in present-day Gujarat, a city linked to Shivaji Maharaj’s military campaign.


He assured that after the MVA comes to power, rates of essential food items like rice, pulses, oil and sugar will be stabilized. Thackeray said currently education for female students is free in the state, but a MVA government will extend this benefit to male pupils, too.

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