The Opposition NCP had its way on Friday, as its senior legislator Ramraje Nimbalkar was elected unopposed as the chairman of the Maharashtra legislative Council after the Congress and Shiv Sena withdrew their candidates from the fray. Four days after his party teamed up the ruling BJP to unseat senior Congress leader Shivajirao Deshmukh from his post as the State Council Chairman, Nimbalkar replaced Deshmukh as the presiding officer of the Upper House of Maharashtra legislature in what turned out to be an anti-climax that saw Congress’ Sharad Ranspise and Shiv Sena’s Neelam Gorhe withdraw from the contest.
Having realised that given its lack of numbers, it had no chance of winning the contest, the Congress pulled out its nominee Ranpise from the poll. On the other hand, the Shiv Sena chose to withdraw Gorhe from the fray, after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP telephoned Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and requested the latter to back out of the contest in view of the alliance between the two parties.
Gorhe herself confirmed that her decision to opt out of the election was a fallout of a telephonic conversation that the Chief Minister had with her party president. "Uddhav ji had first asked me to fill up the candidature for the post. He then spoke to the CM after which we decided to take our nomination back," Gorhe said.
With 28 members, the NCP is the single largest party in the 78-member State legislative Council, followed by the Congress (21), BJP (12) and Shiv Sena (7). like it did on Monday last when it had thrown weight behind the NCP in the no confidence vote against Deshmukh of the Congress, the BJP had assured its support to the NCP nominee in the poll to the Council chairman’s post.
Talking to mediapersons after Nimbalkar’s unanimous election as the Council chairman, Chief Minister Fadnavis said, "Democracy consists of collective wisdom. A chairman does not belong to a particular political party, but to the House. I'm sure Ramraje Nimbalkar has the patience and all the qualities required to lead the House". A scion of erstwhile Phaltan dynasty in Satara district of western Maharashtra, Nimbalkar is an experienced legislator. He was a Minister at various points in the previous Congress-NCP Government in the State.
Nimbalkar, it may recalled, had resigned as State Water Resources Minister in May 2010, after he had failed to get elected to either the State Council or the Assembly within six months of his becoming a minister in the DF government. The NCP however rehabilitated Nimbalkar in less than two months by having elected to the Council once again. The then chief minister Ashok Chavan had subsequently re-inducted Nimbalkar into his Cabinet.
The events leading to Deshmukh’s ouster as Council’s chairman and subsequently Nimbalkar’s election as the new presiding officer of the Upper House will have a bearing on the State politics in the coming months. This is given that the BJP, which had cosied up to the NCP at one stage in the run-up to the formation of a new government in the state in November last year, re-drew political equations in the state by throwing its lot with the Sharad Pawar-led party in the vote on no-confidence against Deshmukh.
On its part, the Shiv Sena—which is the BJP’s ruling alliance partner – had not taken kindly to its senior ally’s “politically opportunistic” stand, so much so that it had opposed the no-confidence vote brought by the NCP against the Congress’ Deshmukh. However, the Sena had chosen to remain neutral in the no-confidence vote against Deshmukh, an election that saw the NCP – with the help of the BJP – poll 45 votes in favour of the motion it had moved against the Council chairman while the Congress secure 22 votes.
The Sena may have toed the BJP line and withdrawn its candidate from the election to the Council Chairman’s post, but the relations between the two saffron alliance partners are definitely not on the even keel. If anything, the Sena will continue to maintain an identity of its own even while being a part of the BJP-led government in the state.