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By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 11:29:11 am

BJP’s zilla parishad surge leaves Shinde Sena sidelined

Mumbai: The political friction within Maharashtra’s ruling alliance has moved from hushed corridors to a public power struggle following Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s recent high-profile dash to the national capital. While Shinde spent his Delhi visit in closed-door deliberations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah—purportedly to protest being marginalised in regional power-sharing—the state BJP responded on Wednesday with a series of aggressive...

BJP’s zilla parishad surge leaves Shinde Sena sidelined

Mumbai: The political friction within Maharashtra’s ruling alliance has moved from hushed corridors to a public power struggle following Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s recent high-profile dash to the national capital. While Shinde spent his Delhi visit in closed-door deliberations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah—purportedly to protest being marginalised in regional power-sharing—the state BJP responded on Wednesday with a series of aggressive manoeuvres. Instead of a reconciliation, Shinde got a reality check in which his Shiv Sena was systematically outmanoeuvred and isolated across key zilla parishads (ZPs) in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Parbhani, and Sangli. This latest sequence of events underscores a rapidly changing dynamic in Maharashtra politics. Ever since Devendra Fadnavis assumed the Chief Minister’s office in December 2024, the BJP has adopted an increasingly assertive posture. Shinde and his camp are visibly struggling to counter this dominance. The political manoeuvring in Parbhani perfectly illustrates the BJP’s new strategy. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 24 seats. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) secured 15 seats, followed by the Shiv Sena with five. The opposition consisted of Shiv Sena (UBT) (six seats), Congress (three seats), and one independent candidate. Guardian Minister Meghana Borikar had initially indicated a plan to seize power alongside Shinde’s Shiv Sena while keeping the NCP out. Silent Moves However, the Congress silently attempted to engineer a broad anti-BJP coalition, trying to unite the NCP, both Sena factions, and the independent member. Sensing the threat, the BJP went into a huddle with NCP leadership for a counter-strategy. Clear directives were sent to the district level. The BJP abruptly formed an alliance with the NCP. Consequently, the Shiv Sena, which had been aggressively eyeing the ZP chairperson’s post, was unceremoniously shown the door. Tight Race A similar drama unfolded in Sambhajinagar. The alliance broke down at the very last moment. Local leaders failed to reach a consensus about the chairperson post. Numbers were extremely tight. The BJP held 23 members, while the Shiv Sena commanded 22. When state-level power-sharing formulas were rejected locally, the BJP took drastic action. Leveraging assistance from the NCP, the BJP successfully engineered a split within the opposition alliance. It managed to win over the crucial votes of three UBT members and one NCP-Sharad Pawar member. On Wednesday, both the BJP and the Shiv Sena filed rival nominations for the top post. Ultimately, the BJP’s tactical cross-voting strategy prevailed. The party walked away with both the chairperson and deputy chairperson positions, leaving the Sena empty-handed. The situation in Sangli further damaged the fragile relationship between the two ruling partners. In Sangli, the NCP-SP successfully bagged the chairperson post. The Shiv Sena accused the BJP of sabotage. It was claimed that the BJP deliberately refused to back the Sena candidate and decided to field its own candidate at the eleventh hour. The last-minute entry split the votes of the ruling alliance and turned the regional equations decisively in favour of the NCP-SP.

Unrest within Mahayuti

Updated: Jan 21, 2025

Mahayuti

Mumbai: The state administration on Sunday stalled the appointments of guardian ministers in Raigad and Nashik districts. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had cleared the appointments before he left for Davos in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum on Saturday. They are believed to have been stalled on behest of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who heads the state in absence of the Chief Minister.


NCP’s Aditi Tatkare and BJP’s Girish Mahajan were entrusted with responsibilities of guardian minister for the Raigad and Nashik districts respectively, where Shiv Sena’s Bharat Gogawale and Dada Bhuse had staked claims. Gogawale is a first-time minister while, Bhuse had been the guardian minister of the district during previous government under Eknath Shinde.


Shiv Sena, NCP and BJP all the three constituents of Mahayuti have strong roots in both the districts. However, the Shiv Sena and the NCP had been particularly on loggerheads there. The Shiv Sena, which had been demanding the guardian minister’s post in Nashik district has managed to win only two assembly seats in the district where the NCP has Six and the BJP has Five MLAs. On the contrary, in Raigad the NCP has won only one seat while the Shiv Sena and the BJP both have Three MLAs each in the district.


Sunil Tatkare, MP from Raigad Lok Sabha constituency and the stat unit president of the NCP and father of Aditi Tatkare, had been the guardian minister of Raigad between 2004 and 2014. Gogawale had always been his political opponent before Tatkare joined the Mahayuti government under Ajit Pawar’s leadership in 2023. Gogawale claimed that all the Six Shiv Sena-BJP MLAs in the district had opined in his favour to be the guardian minister of the district and after the decision to appoint Aditi Tatkare was announced, his supporters resorted to violent protests. They burnt tyres in bid to stall traffic on highway in the district. Reacting to the developments, Tatkare said that the issue should be pondered over after CM Fadnavis returns from Davos on Saturday and settled amicably.


In Nashik Girish Mahajan had been the guardian minister of the district between 2014 and 2019 when Fadnavis was the Chief Minister.


The post of guardian minister doesn’t have any constitutional mandate and is considered to be a political appointment. Guardian ministers head the district planning and development councils (DPDC) that control the funds for development works being carried out in the particular district. This control wields much of political power to the minister in that district whereby spreading the party in the district becomes much easier. This is the reason why the grass root politicians seem to be very sensitive to such appointments.


While Gogawale and Bhuse are unhappy about not being appointed as guardian ministers, some others like NCP’s Hasan Mushrif and BJP’s Pankaja Munde are unhappy about not being appointed as guardian district in their home districts of Kolhapur and Beed respectively. DCM Shinde is learnt to have gone to his ancestral village Dare in Satara district after the decision and BJP’s firefighters Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Girish Mahajan are expected to meet him there to try finding a way out of the issue.

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