Wednesday Post

So friends, I am back on the job of writing my blog, after the Diwali break,  in effect  I missed  only  2 blog days. Politically the nation was  at a slow pace, except for 2 states which went for elections last week. Few observations on the last few days of happenings in the country.

1 So BJP acted very fast in Haryana, as they were short by 6 seats for majority in Haryana, they were enable to form a post poll alliance with Dushyant Chautala’s JPP which had won 10 seats in the assembly elections, plus they were also supported by few independents, thus raising their tally to 50+ in the house of 90. But in the process BJP had to concede Dy Chief Minister’s post to Dushyant Chautala,  in the earlier assembly they did not have Dy CM’s post. So the govt headed by BJP’s Manoharlal Khattar has once again taken over the reins of Haryana Govt. Congress who had won 31 seats, was unable to form any post poll alliance with any political party or get the support of any independents, so they never made any attempt to present their credential to Governor for govt formation.

2 The second state which went to poll last week was Maharashtra, although here the pre poll alliance of BJP/Shiv Sena got the majority with 160 seats out of 288, but here their strength came down from 185 seats to 160 seats, with BJP winning 104 and Shiv Sena winning 56 seats. The Congress/NCP combine won 99 seats with NCP winning 54 and Congress 43 seats.  In fact both BJP and Shiv Sena lost the seats as compared to their strength in earlier assembly, BJP came down from 122 to 104, and Sena from 62 to 56. But immediately after  the results Shiv Sena started celebrating and few of their newly elected members started projecting Aditya Thackerey (son of Sena President Udhav Thackerey) as Chief Minister, where as BJP all the time was projecting present CM Devendra Fadnavis as future CM also. This move of Shiv Sena did not go well with BJP. Secondly simultaneously Sena President started giving statements in the media that in the pre poll alliance before the Lok Sabha elections, BJP President Amit Shah had promised that after the next assembly poll  both the parties will be on 50:50 basis in the govt. This took everyone by surprise, and even newspaper Saamna (which is Sena’s mouthpiece) also started writing on this topic and indicating that this time Sena will not accept nothing less than sharing power on 50:50, with equal distribution of ministries and Chief Ministership to each party for  2 and half years.

BJP initially kept quiet, but immediately next day after Diwali Devendra Phadnavis came out in media  and said there were many talks during pre poll alliance before Lok Sabha elections, and BJP never committed that power will be shared on 50:50 basis with Shiv Sena in state. Problem with Shiv Sena is that they are unable to digest the fact they are no longer the big brother in this alliance, which used to happen before 2104 Lok Sabha and assembly elections. Now see the fact they never shared the allotment of seats on 50:50 basis,  as BJP were allotted 164 seats to contest (out of this they allotted few seats to their smaller allies also) in fact they contested on 154 seats, where as Shiv Sena were allotted 124 seats to contest. Now look at the wining conversion percentage of both the parties; BJP contested on 154 seats and won 104 seats, which gave them 67.5 as winning percentage, where as Shiv Sena contested 124 seats and won 56 seats, which is winning percentage of 45.2. They  were allotted less seats to contest in the election, and their winning percentage is 22.3% less than BJP, then on what basis they are  asking equal share in govt.

Yesterday in a message to Shiv Sena, BJP has given clear indications that they will retain Home, Finance, Revenue and Urban Development with their ministers, and offered Shiv Sena 13 other ministeries. Even in earlier Congress/NCP alliance , Congress used to always have upper hand and CM was always from Congress party and DY CM was always from NCP. Once in 2009 after the poll results NCP got 2 more seats than Congress, still CM was from Congress. Earlier even when Sena/BJP had alliance govt in Maharashtra from 1994-99, then it was Sena who acted as big brother and CM was from Shiv Sena, and Dy CM was from BJP, but now the situation is reverse, BJP is at power in centre, they have more number of Lok Sabha and assembly seats in Maharashtra than Shiv Sena, so they have become big brother in Maharashtra. So I fail to understand on what basis Shiv Sena is demanding power sharing on 50:50 basis, neither they are now big brother in Maharashtra, nor they have more number of seats. To me it look like a pressure tactics to get some plum ministeries  in the govt.

What you say, my friends.

Waiting for your feed backs/views/comments.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

30^th Oct 2019