In the history of coalition governments in Maharashtra, it never happened that all ministers belonging to one of the partners in the coalition stayed absent at a state cabinet meeting. This happened at the government headquarters on Tuesday this week! A historic development, as all ministers belonging to the Shiv Sena decided to, reportedly, "boycott" the cabinet meeting. Naturally, the news became sensational. It exposed the cracks in the Mahayuti partners, the BJP and the Shiv Sena, and gave credence to the theory that there was a cold war brewing between Shiv Sena leader and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde and the BJP's top leader in the state, CM Devendra Fadnavis!
A lot of discussion has already happened in the media about the pushes and pulls happening between the Mahayuti alliance partners since the past few months. But it seems things have reached the brink now, as the BJP have not only shown clearly that they are in the driver's seat in the state government but have also started poaching leaders from Eknath Shinde's party in his stronghold of Thane, Kalyan and Dombivli. It is becoming clear that the BJP wants to run its pre-planned agenda of "shata pratishat BhaJaPa" (Hundred Percent BJP) in all forthcoming elections. In his visit to Mumbai over a fortnight ago, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had spoken about "getting rid of the crutches" in Maharashtra. This now seems to be the guideline for the state BJP leadership, and they seem to be acting on it.
It is almost certain that the BJP has decided to go solo in the upcoming civic polls in the state in all municipal corporations except Mumbai; the same is likely to happen in district council polls, which will take place simultaneously. This is because the party leadership in New Delhi has sensed the pressure from the grassroots activists to fight these elections alone and has, reportedly, put pressure on the Maharashtra state leadership to do so in all municipal corporations except Mumbai, which is very complex and crucial for the ruling party to win. Sensing that alliance partners Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar are going to be rivals in the upcoming polls for the BJP, the ruling party has been creating pressure on these leaders through various means in the past few months. Sometimes by sidelining them in the decision-making process in the Maharashtra government and sometimes by ensuring that its leaders get into some sort of controversy or another.
The buzz in the corridors of power in Mantralaya is about how the Chief Minister is now depending more and more on a handful of bureaucrats for all crucial decisions and fund allocations, sidelining his coalition partners. Some of Eknath Shinde’s MLAs are now openly talking to the media about how their party, and its MLAs, are being completely sidelined in the decision-making process, especially regarding allocation of funds to the ministries allocated to Eknath Shinde's party. All this resulted in Shinde's colleagues in the Maharashtra cabinet staying absent at the cabinet meeting this week, an unprecedented event!
The incident created such waves in Maharashtra's regional media that the BJP had to get into a damage control mode. BJP minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule went to meet Eknath Shinde to sort out the issue, and one of Shinde's trusted ministers, Gulabrao Patil, was asked to issue a statement claiming all was well between both the alliance partners! But the damage was already done. All this has made observers wonder about the next point, that is, how will this affect the Mahayuti alliance in the upcoming poll season in Maharashtra?
In many districts of Maharashtra, one can see an ongoing tussle between not only the ruling party and the opposition but also within the coalition partners of the ruling Mahayuti! For instance, in Nashik the tussle is between NCP minister Chhagan Bhujbal and BJP heavyweight Girish Mahajan; in Pune the tussle is between BJP leader and minister Chandrakant Patil and NCP's top leader Ajit Pawar; in Thane/Navi Mumbai the fight seems to have emerged between Shiv Sena top leader Eknath Shinde and BJP leader and cabinet minister Ganesh Naik; in Nanded the fight is between BJP MP Ashok Chavan and NCP leader Pratap Chikhalikar; and in the Dharashiv District the fight is between BJP's Rana Jagjitsingh Patil and Shiv Sena leader Tanaji Sawant. All over Maharashtra, the fights seem to be happening between the Mahayuti partners themselves, and the opposition leaders are nowhere in the picture!
So, while there are open disagreements between the BJP state leadership and the Shiv Sena state leadership at the top level in Mumbai, a similar trend is visible at the local levels, where the regional or district-level leaders from the two parties are seen clashing against each other. As of now, no one can predict where all this will lead. But the big question is: Will these fights lead to the Mahayuti splitting in the near future? It is clear that the answer to this will depend upon the results in the upcoming district council and city municipal corporation polls.
Rohit Chandavarkar is a senior journalist who has worked for 31 years with various leading newspaper brands and television channels in Mumbai and Pune.
