Maharashtra Govt

It has been almost a week since Maharashtra was put under President’s Rule.  During last week on 12th Nov, I wrote about formation of govt in Maharashtra with how the political parties with diverse ideologies are uniting to form a govt.

Today also, I am writing on the same topic as now it is almost certain that  three political parties ie Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena are  joining hands to form the govt in Maharashtra.

Now what was the reason for these three parties to join hands for govt formation? Shiv Sena who for three decades have sided with BJP, but every time before the elections , without fail Shiv Sena has thrown tantrum during the seat sharing, and last time during assembly elections Shiv Sena  after haggling for more seats, and in the end did not agree with what BJP offered them , fought the elections separately, but could win only 64 seats, as compared to 124 seats which BJP won. Later hesitantly they joined the govt, after BJP had formed the minority govt. During the General election in Apr 2019 they won 18 seats, which was way beyond their expectations, and they though they have become major force in Maharashtra, but they failed to realise that majority of the seats came to their kitty because they were in alliance with BJP. So this success went into their head . Although in assembly elections in Oct 2019, they fought the election in alliance with BJP and secured 56 seats, where as BJP won 105. As BJP lost more seats  in comparison to their tally in 2014, from the day result came our the tantrums of Shiv Sena started, which led to the present situation.

Shiv Sena has only one thing in their mind, and that is they want Chief Minister’s post at any cost. BJP has been patient with them over the years, but this time BJP did not relent.

It will be strange govt in Maharashtra if Shiv Sena leads a coalition comprising of NCP and Congress, a scenario which no body would have imagined before the elections. Now Shiv Sena as a party, is always out spoken and has no restraint. It expresses its opinion- which can be changed any time. BJP has faced this problem in the past and now Congress & NCP will discover the same frequently.

But Udhav Thackrey’s dream of making his son Aditya next CM of Maharashtra may not materialise, as both Congress and NCP are not agreeing for his name. Udhav has been told that if Shiv Sena wants CM’s post then they will agree for his (Udhav’s) name.

I do not know Samana, the Sena newspaper, has how many readers, but the Sena’s Chief interviews are published on the front pages regularly, and this is the medium through which Sena expresses their stubborn nature.

Ideologically Shiv Sena is perceived to be a Hindutva party, but actually it is not. Actually it is an opportunist organisation, who has fought against Hindus from Northern and Southern parts of the country, as well as Muslims. In fact they participated in Babri Masjid demolition and in the subsequent riots against Muslims in Mumbai.

At the same time it is also true that in Mumbai Shiv Sena is willing to humiliate and brutalise the same north Indian Hindus, with whom they demolished Babri Masjid.

Now it is to be seen that how the Gandhis and Pawars will accommodate this past, and the language from the Thackreys that is sure to follow against both ally and enemy,  it will be interesting how their new coalition partners react.

One more interesting factor will be how the Congressmen like Manmohan Singh, Shashi Tharoor, Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram, Ghulam Babi Azad and others, who has always spoken against BJP & Shiv Sena and their Hindutva plank will now justify a pact and alliance with Shiv Sena.

One more thing about the Sena is that because it does not have any particular ideology, it has no meaningful manifesto or strategy. It has no idea on how economy should be run, what can be done to improve human development, it just speak brave words. They can reduce most solutions to violence. When in power, it will be no doubt that they will produce entertaining and scare moments.

For  both NCP and Congress, this election results were beyond their imaginations. The two parties share a similar vote share as Shiv Sena (16%) which is 8 % less than the BJP got. While the Congress was in slow decline, but this sharing of power can give the hope to both Congress & NCP to rebuild.

Congress/NCP might consider this alliance with Sena, a step in some other direction, which can be considered as a defensive political move rather than an offensive move.

One thing which perplexes me is how Congress is going to justify this alliance to their Muslim voters, and what will happen to their secular ideology. Secondly how Congress is going to explain to its grass root workers about this action of joining hands with Shiv Sena. At the grass root levels workers of even Shiv Sena and NCP are also not happy with this alliance, because workers of Congress/NCP and Shiv Sena have fought with each other for three decades, and now how you expect them to become friendly. If Congress would have been confident they would have gone for fresh elections, pointing to failure of BJP/Sena alliance to form the govt, but it appears to directionless and broken. There is one more fear among these three parties Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP, because they fear  marginalisation and increasing irrelevance in the era of Modi led BJP.

And lastly no body is giving thought about the voters of Maharashtra, who voted BJP/Shiv Sena  alliance to the power, it is actually these voters who are feeling totally marginalised, and that is the strange fact. I think in future there should be a law passed, if  a particular party wants to break pre poll alliance then it has to go back to electorate for new mandate, because the political parties can not treat the voters in this manner, as voters are electing a member based on his party’s or alliance’s credentials.

What you say my friends.

Waiting for your views/feed backs/comments.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

18^th Nov 2019