After 15 years, finally, there has been a regime change in Maharashtra. For the first time there is a Saffron party in ruling as well as in Opposition bench. But was it all a smooth ride in the rise of Narendra Modi led BJP which turned out to be largest party. New party or alliance was sure to take charge in the state considering the considerable good work done by the previous Congress-NCP setup. But the way things turned out in the end was quite disappointing as well as surprising.
Soon after BJP led NDA came to power in Lok Sabha, BJP started moving it's pieces for capturing Vidhan Sabha in Maharashtra and Haryana. The Mahayuti which had Shiv Sena, BJP, RPI, RSP, SSS and Shiv Sangram was expected to come to power with more than 200 seats in the state. However the tussle started between the two main stakeholders in the alliance, Shiv Sena & BJP over seat sharing arrangement. As decided by Late Shiv Sena Chief Balasaheb Thackeray & senoir BJP leader Late Pramod Mahajan, the seat sharing formula said BJP will be elder brother in General Elections while Shiv Sena will be elder in state elections. So the formula of 171-117 was always considered as the base for negotiations. BJP appointed Rajiv Pratap Rudy to take control of Maharashtra elections. The noise started increasing, moment BJP started sending proposals of equal seat sharing to Shiv Sena.
Before the alliance partners meetings even started, ShivSena had released it's first part of the Vision Document which was pertaining to Mumbai. In the presentation ShivSena launced it's Mission 150 for the state polls and had declared party chief Uddhav Thackeray as their CM candidate. This created a bit of animosity amongst other parties in the alliance. Hence BJP started looking for it's option to grow beyond the restrictions of Mahayuti and Shivsena. They knew very well that this was their golden chance to score above ShivSena and stake claim for the CM post. The alliance formula also said the party with highest number of seats will lead the government. Hence Shivsena declaring their CM candidate on behalf of the alliance made the environment sour even before official discussions had begun.
The unrest due to seat sharing had finally led to a split in the 25 years alliance, and both Shivsena and BJP decided to go solo in the state polls. The other stakeholder from the Mahayuti decided to stay with BJO thus leaving ShivSena alone in the first state election post demise of Balasaheb Thackeray. The important catch in this process was merely couple of hours after this break up annoucement was made, NCP announced it is parting ways with Congress and also withdrew support from the government thus forcing President's Rule for a month in the state. It seems the BJP and Sharad Pawar do have some secret affair wherein one gives hand when other ship in sinking. To understand this affair we need to go a bit in the past.
The first time when Shivsena and BJP came together it was Sharad Pawar who was the reason for their breakup. In1984 Shivsena fielded 2 candidates under BJP symbol, though unsuccessfully. Congress won the election with landslide margin of over 400 seats due to the sympathy wave of Indira Gandhi. BJP shifted the defeat in Mumbai on Shivsena even though they themselves managed to get 2 seats throughout the country out of which one was due to TDP. A big reason for BJP being decimated in 1984 was RSS had tacitly backed the Congress and spread the word that its cadre were free to vote as they pleased. Even Nanaji Deshmukh had endorsed Indira’s Punjab policies and asked it's cadres to vote for Congress.
After the defeat BJP drifted away from the Shivsena as many leaders saw it as a controversial outfit. Later in 1985 Sharad Pawar formed an alliance the Purogami Lokshahi Aghadi (PULOD) bringing together Congress-S, Janata Party and Left parties for Maharashtra state elections which was principally against the Congress-I. BJP decided to join the alliance but Shivsena stayed away. Result was Shivsena won only one seat in the assembly but captured BMC.
Shivsena earned huge response after the Shah Bano case and also won the Vile Parle by election in 1987 on Hindutva plank for which Shivsena Chief was banned from voting for six years. As the VHP led Ram Janmabhoomi Movement began in Ayodhya, LK Advani was told to lead the Rath Yatra. Finally BJP embraced Hindutva and joined hands with Shivsena in 1989 as Sharad Pawar rejoined the Congress-I outfit. Balasaheb Thackeray had reminded the BJP leaders more than once how they were close to Sharad Pawar.
In 2014, again Sharad Pawar has his own party NCP who was now trying to enter NDA fold during Lok Sabha elections. However Shivsena opposed strongly to this step and hence BJP had to cancel any such plans. Even RSS was not willing to allow NCP to enter the alliance who had coined a term Saffron Terror. In the Lok Sabha election BJP Prime Ministerial Candidate Narendra Modi had campaigned extensively in Maharashtra but had knowingly ingnored Baramati constituency which belonged to Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule. In the various TV interviews of different party leaders during the run up to state polls, one leader from Mahayuti Madhav Jankar of RSP had opened the secret that Sharad Pawar and Narendra Modi had a deal during Lok Sabha campaign period that former will not campaign in Baramati. And if NCP is able to get 3-4 MPs only then his party will support BJP endeavors in the Rajya Sabha, as UPA still has majority in the upper house. Hence, inspite Jankar being a strong candidate against Sule, he lost the election by small margin as neither Modi nor Uddhav campaigned for him Baramati.
When the BJP fell short of majority again in Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha, NCP supported BJP in the voice vote for confidence motion of the minority BJP government. The secret love affair was reignited after 3 decades showing that it is still lively and ripe. BJP thought it was convenient to walk away from Shivsena by taking outside support from NCP. When everyone is pretty much aware that they cannot be trusted at any moment of time. Sharad Pawar left Congress in 1999 to form NCP by criticising Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin. But joined hands with the same party and ruled the state for 15years and also country for 10 years. Now they supported BJP in vote of confidence by taking moral ground of respecting people's mandate and that support is unconditional with only intention of giving state a stable government and immediately after 2 days Sharad Pawar asked his NCP workers to be ready for midterm polls in state at anytime.
Hope Modi-Shah duo take cognizance of these ground realities and realise the gravity of risk they are taking by accepting NCP support in the state.
-SR
Soon after BJP led NDA came to power in Lok Sabha, BJP started moving it's pieces for capturing Vidhan Sabha in Maharashtra and Haryana. The Mahayuti which had Shiv Sena, BJP, RPI, RSP, SSS and Shiv Sangram was expected to come to power with more than 200 seats in the state. However the tussle started between the two main stakeholders in the alliance, Shiv Sena & BJP over seat sharing arrangement. As decided by Late Shiv Sena Chief Balasaheb Thackeray & senoir BJP leader Late Pramod Mahajan, the seat sharing formula said BJP will be elder brother in General Elections while Shiv Sena will be elder in state elections. So the formula of 171-117 was always considered as the base for negotiations. BJP appointed Rajiv Pratap Rudy to take control of Maharashtra elections. The noise started increasing, moment BJP started sending proposals of equal seat sharing to Shiv Sena.
Before the alliance partners meetings even started, ShivSena had released it's first part of the Vision Document which was pertaining to Mumbai. In the presentation ShivSena launced it's Mission 150 for the state polls and had declared party chief Uddhav Thackeray as their CM candidate. This created a bit of animosity amongst other parties in the alliance. Hence BJP started looking for it's option to grow beyond the restrictions of Mahayuti and Shivsena. They knew very well that this was their golden chance to score above ShivSena and stake claim for the CM post. The alliance formula also said the party with highest number of seats will lead the government. Hence Shivsena declaring their CM candidate on behalf of the alliance made the environment sour even before official discussions had begun.
The unrest due to seat sharing had finally led to a split in the 25 years alliance, and both Shivsena and BJP decided to go solo in the state polls. The other stakeholder from the Mahayuti decided to stay with BJO thus leaving ShivSena alone in the first state election post demise of Balasaheb Thackeray. The important catch in this process was merely couple of hours after this break up annoucement was made, NCP announced it is parting ways with Congress and also withdrew support from the government thus forcing President's Rule for a month in the state. It seems the BJP and Sharad Pawar do have some secret affair wherein one gives hand when other ship in sinking. To understand this affair we need to go a bit in the past.
The first time when Shivsena and BJP came together it was Sharad Pawar who was the reason for their breakup. In1984 Shivsena fielded 2 candidates under BJP symbol, though unsuccessfully. Congress won the election with landslide margin of over 400 seats due to the sympathy wave of Indira Gandhi. BJP shifted the defeat in Mumbai on Shivsena even though they themselves managed to get 2 seats throughout the country out of which one was due to TDP. A big reason for BJP being decimated in 1984 was RSS had tacitly backed the Congress and spread the word that its cadre were free to vote as they pleased. Even Nanaji Deshmukh had endorsed Indira’s Punjab policies and asked it's cadres to vote for Congress.
After the defeat BJP drifted away from the Shivsena as many leaders saw it as a controversial outfit. Later in 1985 Sharad Pawar formed an alliance the Purogami Lokshahi Aghadi (PULOD) bringing together Congress-S, Janata Party and Left parties for Maharashtra state elections which was principally against the Congress-I. BJP decided to join the alliance but Shivsena stayed away. Result was Shivsena won only one seat in the assembly but captured BMC.
Shivsena earned huge response after the Shah Bano case and also won the Vile Parle by election in 1987 on Hindutva plank for which Shivsena Chief was banned from voting for six years. As the VHP led Ram Janmabhoomi Movement began in Ayodhya, LK Advani was told to lead the Rath Yatra. Finally BJP embraced Hindutva and joined hands with Shivsena in 1989 as Sharad Pawar rejoined the Congress-I outfit. Balasaheb Thackeray had reminded the BJP leaders more than once how they were close to Sharad Pawar.
In 2014, again Sharad Pawar has his own party NCP who was now trying to enter NDA fold during Lok Sabha elections. However Shivsena opposed strongly to this step and hence BJP had to cancel any such plans. Even RSS was not willing to allow NCP to enter the alliance who had coined a term Saffron Terror. In the Lok Sabha election BJP Prime Ministerial Candidate Narendra Modi had campaigned extensively in Maharashtra but had knowingly ingnored Baramati constituency which belonged to Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule. In the various TV interviews of different party leaders during the run up to state polls, one leader from Mahayuti Madhav Jankar of RSP had opened the secret that Sharad Pawar and Narendra Modi had a deal during Lok Sabha campaign period that former will not campaign in Baramati. And if NCP is able to get 3-4 MPs only then his party will support BJP endeavors in the Rajya Sabha, as UPA still has majority in the upper house. Hence, inspite Jankar being a strong candidate against Sule, he lost the election by small margin as neither Modi nor Uddhav campaigned for him Baramati.
When the BJP fell short of majority again in Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha, NCP supported BJP in the voice vote for confidence motion of the minority BJP government. The secret love affair was reignited after 3 decades showing that it is still lively and ripe. BJP thought it was convenient to walk away from Shivsena by taking outside support from NCP. When everyone is pretty much aware that they cannot be trusted at any moment of time. Sharad Pawar left Congress in 1999 to form NCP by criticising Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin. But joined hands with the same party and ruled the state for 15years and also country for 10 years. Now they supported BJP in vote of confidence by taking moral ground of respecting people's mandate and that support is unconditional with only intention of giving state a stable government and immediately after 2 days Sharad Pawar asked his NCP workers to be ready for midterm polls in state at anytime.
Hope Modi-Shah duo take cognizance of these ground realities and realise the gravity of risk they are taking by accepting NCP support in the state.
-SR
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