Maharashtra | Mahayuti in a maha churn
The sweep in the state legislative council election was supposed to cement the ruling BJP-led alliance's position. Instead, it has exposed the cracks among the partners
On the face of it, the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra seems unassailable. The defection of six out of nine Lok Sabha MPs from the Opposition Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) to the Shiv Sena led by deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, and the rumours of another split in the party’s legislature unit in Maharashtra—along with one in the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) ranks—have created a flutter in the already demoralised Opposition camp.
On the face of it, the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra seems unassailable. The defection of six out of nine Lok Sabha MPs from the Opposition Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) to the Shiv Sena led by deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, and the rumours of another split in the party’s legislature unit in Maharashtra—along with one in the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) ranks—have created a flutter in the already demoralised Opposition camp.
But, as many in the Mahayuti alliance admit, the Devendra Fadnavis-led government is dealing with a crisis of its own. The meltdown in the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has seen a parallel rise in sniping among the allies in the ruling coalition. An indication of this internecine war came during the state legislative council elections—which, incidentally, the Mahayuti swept—where the cross-voting and shock defeat of a Shiv Sena candidate revealed the deep fissures within. The electoral college for the legislative council elections consists of corporators, members of zilla parishads and chairpersons of panchayat samitis.
Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray wryly noted that the defection of his six MPs was not ‘Operation Tiger’, as Shinde and his men claimed, but ‘Operation Devendra’ orchestrated by Union home minister Amit Shah to nip chief minister Fadnavis’s prime ministerial aspirations in the bud. Uddhav has good reason to be peeved: this is the third major split in his party since June 2022. Fadnavis, meanwhile, was quick with the denial, adding it was enough that he had the “blessings of the 140 million people of Maharashtra and the senior leaders of his party”.
INNER RUMBLINGS
The Mahayuti may have swept the legislative council elections, but all the drama was happening in Nashik where Narendra Darade of the Shinde-led Sena saw a shock defeat at the hands of BJP rebel Gokul Gite. Gite had entered the fray against Darade as an independent, but was ready to stand down after intervention from ministers Girish Mahajan (BJP) and Uday Samant (Shiv Sena). However, since the deadline for withdrawals had passed, his name remained on the ballot paper. Darade was expecting a cakewalk, but Gite continued to galvanise support on the ground, allegedly with support from the BJP leadership. He is also said to have pulled votes from the MVA. After the loss, Darade was left fuming, but things were smoothed out between the ruling allies after the BJP allegedly ‘allowed’ Gite to become an associate member of the Sena.
Meanwhile, cross-voting also robbed some of the sheen of the victory for the BJP in Satara-Sangli (where the NCP-SP managed to split around 100 Mahayuti votes), Solapur and Bhandara-Gondia. “This was a one-sided affair,” says political analyst Abhay Deshpande. “The Mahayuti constituents have exterminated their political opponents, so they are now turning on each other.”
The ‘extermination’ fear is real in the MVA. Things were so bad that the Sena (UBT) and the Congress saw nominees withdrawing from the fray in seats like Raigad-Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad). In the end, Mahayuti candidates were elected unopposed in six of the 17 seats up for election.
