BJP all the way

IN the end, all that outgoing Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde managed to do was to delay the inevitable. He tried hard to punch above his weight, but the BJP had too many aces up its sleeve. In last month’s Assembly elections, the BJP-led Mahayuti had recorded a thumping victory. Shinde’s fate was practically sealed when his Shiv Sena faction ended up with only 57 seats, not even half the tally (132) of the saffron party. His supporters were just clutching at straws when they sought replication of the Bihar model — the BJP had won more seats in that state than its ally, the Janata Dal (United), but had given the CM’s chair to Nitish Kumar. The writing was on the wall: Shinde had to be put in his place, and the BJP did exactly that with characteristic deftness.

Everything has fallen into place for the saffron party in Maharashtra over the past two-and-a-half years. It capitalised on disunity within the Shiv Sena to win over Shinde and bring down the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government. A year later, Ajit Pawar — always ready to join any alliance, provided he gets the deputy CM’s post — broke away from his uncle Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and joined hands with the ruling coalition. The split in the Sena and the NCP worked to the BJP’s advantage, which has gone from strength to strength.

In the last week of June 2022, when his government’s fate was hanging by a thread, an embittered Uddhav claimed that he had warned Shinde of the BJP’s “use and throw” policy. The ex-CM was not off the mark as Shinde today finds himself at the mercy of his formidable ally. His faction has been reduced to a liability for the senior partner, which can survive and thrive without its support. With Devendra Fadnavis at the helm, the BJP has tightened its grip on Maharashtra politics, not only decimating the Opposition but also dwarfing its own allies.