BJP pushes Eknath Shinde in hot seat, eyes Bal Thackeray legacy

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By Manish Anand

New Delhi, June 30: The Maharashtra politics continues to be an open chessboard with grandmasters etched on their edges, playing their moves in full admission that the state’s politics is totally fluid.

The Bharatiya Janata Party sprung the surprise on Thursday to prop up the rebel Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde as the new Chief Minister, while taking aside its face Devendra Fadnavis.

Last evening the outgoing Chief Minister and the Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray had sought to retrieve his prestige by announcing resignation in Facebook Live, vowing to come back on the legacy of his father and the founder of the party Bal Thackeray.

For three decades, the Maharashtra politics has revolved around the pole of Bal Thackeray, and the BJP may have assessed that the party should be seen on the side of the Shiv Sena founder even while there could be a wave of sympathy in favour of Uddhav Thackeray at a time when posters of betrayal are everywhere on the walls in the state.

The Maharashtra politics remains fluid because the Supreme Court is yet to pronounce its verdict even while it had given a go ahead for the floor test today.

The BJP is also apparently smarting under the embarrassment of Fadnavis’ failed bid to form the government in the state with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar.

Maharashtra politics has a high emotional quotient, as it was seen in the change of hearts of Ajit Pawar within hours of taking oath as the Deputy Chief Minister in the company of Fadnavis.

Importantly, the BJP doesn’t want to be seen as a party which scripted the split in the Shiv Sena while the neighbouring state Gujarat is heading for the Assembly elections.

The BJP leaders attributed the shifting of the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs from Surat to Guwahati as party’s bid to insulate Gujarat from any impact of the fluid political situation in Maharashtra.

For BJP, the Shiv Sena’s Hindutva legacy and its mass base among the Marathas are crucial for the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. The significance of the constituency nursed by Bal Thackeray has been so key for the BJP that Fadnavis had stuck to a pre-poll alliance with the Shiv Sena in the 2019 Assembly elections despite the Central BJP leaders urging him to go solo in the polls.

If the emotional outpourings of the Sena workers and the consequent sympathy for Uddhav Thackeray work in the next elections, it will evidently be disadvantage for the BJP. To negate such a prospect, Shinde as the Chief Minister, proclaiming reverence for Bal Thackeray and his brand of Hindutva perfectly work for the BJP.