June 21, 2022 — This date will always be remembered by Shiv Sena leaders and workers.
On this day, Eknath Shinde, along with his MLAs, rebelled against the party chief and then Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. And after nine days of this rebellion and drama, Shinde, with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), became the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
Post the rebellion, Shinde and his loyal MLAs and supporters maintained that they had to do it as Thackeray got into an “unnatural alliance" with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) by forming the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the state.
During the MVA regime, Sena leader Pratap Sarnaik had written to Thackeray to join hands with the BJP again, so that central agencies won’t trouble Shiv Sena leaders. For a long time, Sarnaik was under the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) scanner.
As Shinde got the party name, Shiv Sena, and bow and arrow symbol, his supporters were rest assured that they won’t have to struggle while facing the elections.
But it seems they failed to assess the risk of joining hands with the BJP. The friction within the alliance is now coming to the fore.
THE FIGHT OVER PRINT AD
Although Shinde and Fadnavis both portray that they are working as one team for Maharashtra, their “love-hate relationship" is the topic of gossip in the state’s political circles.
The latest instance is the full page ad in all leading newspapers a week ago. The advertisement had a photograph of PM Narendra Modi and CM Eknath Shinde. It said that 26% people of Maharashtra, in a survey, preferred Eknath Shinde for the post, whereas 23% people want to see Devendra Fadnavis as the CM. This was a bold advertisement and created a flutter within the BJP camp in the Maharashtra. After the ad grabbed the headlines, Shinde issued a damage control statement, disowning it, saying it is not the official advertisement by the party and some well-wishers had done it. Through the advertisement, Shinde tried to give a clear message to Fadnavis and state BJP leaders that he has got the backing of the central leadership of the BJP. Without strong support, no “well-wisher" could have ever dared to publish such an advertisement.
To cool off the escalated tension, the next day, Shinde’s party gave an official advertisement with a photo of Fadnavis, and talking about how people wanted to see the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in the state again.
SNATCHING OF MIC, BJP’s ‘NON-COOPERATION’ WITH SHINDE’s SON SHRIKANT
This was not the first instance of friction between the Shiv Sena and BJP. When Shinde became the Chief Minister and was addressing a joint press conference with Fadnavis, the latter snatched the mic from Shinde to answer a question. This gave an opportunity to the MVA, especially the Thackeray faction, to raise the question — who is real Chief Minister of the state?
Not just the upper layers, this “love-hate relationship" percolated to the grassroots level too. A few weeks ago, when Shinde was on a tour of Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP unit of Kalyan and Dombivali took a decision to not help Member of Parliament from Kalyan Dr Shrikant Shinde, Shinde’s son, in the upcoming election.
The reason was a local BJP leader from Dombivali was arrested by the local police and BJP leaders were of the opinion that this was done by Shrikant to settle scores. Shrikant sent a video statement from Kashmir and said that someone is trying to spread rumours about him and it is an attempt to strain the ties between the Shiv Sena and BJP. He also offered to tender his resignation as an MP on this issue. Shinde intervened and brought both the factions together.
A few days later, MLA and BJP leader Sanjay Kelkar criticised Shinde and Shiv Sena in Thane, Shinde’s home turf, for expanding into the BJP’s territory of Kalyan, Palghar and Thane. He criticised Shinde at the party function where other leaders of the BJP were also present.
‘NOT B-TEAM OF BJP’
According to political analysts, this friction is happening because Shinde and his Shiv Sena have realised that if they don’t expand politically, they will always be called the ‘B-team of the BJP’, which will ultimately help Thackeray and his faction of the Shiv Sena.
Shinde is also aware of the fact that Thackeray and his faction have sympathy on ground. Also, seeing the BJP’s track record of how they have treated regional parties so far, including the Shiv Sena under Thackeray’s leadership, Shinde doesn’t want an encore.
The other reason for the strain is the top leadership of the BJP has given a direct access to Shinde, which the state BJP leadership didn’t like. After Fadnavis was made the deputy CM in the Shinde cabinet, it was clear that what top leadership of the BJP had on their mind.
It will be interesting to see how long these two parties can go on this way? Will Shinde help the BJP win maximum seats in Lok Sabha and will the BJP allow Shinde to lead in the state elections? Although Shinde has the ambition to become the CM again, is the BJP state leadership ready to give away the CM’s post again?
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