Sena removes Shinde as LoP, but Uddhav rushes emissaries to placate rebel leader
The Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Government in Maharashtra appeared to be on the verge of collapse on Tuesday evening, hours after politically influential senior Sena minister Eknath Shinde rebelled against the party leadership and looked all set to walk out of the party with his 30-odd supporting MLAs to join hands with the BJP.
A day after it suffered a massive setback in the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls in which the Opposition BJP mustered at least 26 extra votes from other parties and Independents to win five out of ten seats, Shinde dropped a bombshell on the Shiv Sena, rebelling with a band of 30-odd Sena MLAs, including two ministers.
According to reports emanating from Surat, as many as 33 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs and four Independents — all supporters of Shinde — are being flown to Guwahati to ensure they don’t return to the parent party in the coming days.
In a belated damage control move that looked more like locking the stable door after the horses bolted, a rudely jolted Shiv Sena leadership removed Shinde as the party’s leader in the State Assembly and replaced him with its senior party functionary Ajay Choudhury.
Notwithstanding a vehement denial by the principal Opposition party in the State that it had nothing to do with the major crisis facing the Shiv Sena, Shinde is understood to have been in touch with the State BJP leaders before rebelling against Uddhav and quietly moved out of Mumbai along with his supporting MLAs and landed at Le Meridien Hotel at Surat, a city that comes under the BJP-ruled Gujarat.
A close aide of late powerful Shiv Sena leader from Thane Anand Dighe who was rumoured to have been upset with the Sena leadership before he died prematurely of heart attack in 2001, Shinde has not taken kindly to his being denied the number one post in the State. Shinde had been nominated as the leader of the second single-largest party, after the BJP, to form a government in the State after the 2019 Assembly polls, but he was eventually denied the CM’s post to facilitate Uddhav Thackeray to become the Chief Minister of the State.
Informed sources in the Shiv Sena said that Shinde, who had on a couple of occasions in the recent past attempted to stage a rebellion but shelved the plans after Uddhav spoke to him. Shinde was reportedly unhappy for quite some time due to hurdles created by the CM’s office in discharge of his duty as the State Urban Development and MSRDC Minister. He was also unhappy that despite his repeated requests to Uddhav, the Shiv Sena refused to extend its support to Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji’s scion Chhatrapati Sambhajiraje, who wanted to contest the June 10, 2022 Rajya Sabha polls.
In an effort to douse the massive fire that is threatening burn down the Sena citadel, Shiv Sena president and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray spoke to Shinde over phone in the afternoon and later deputed to his close aides — Milind Narvekar and Ravindra Phatak — as emissaries to meet and placate aggrieved Shinde at Surat’s five-star hotel.
While it is not immediately known as to what message they had carried from Uddhav, the two Sena emissaries had a half an hour-long meeting with Shinde. However, the outcome of the meeting was not known.
Through a tweet put earlier in the afternoon, Shinde had virtually distanced himself from Uddhav’s leadership by claiming that he was a dedicated follower of late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, that he had learnt lessons of Hindutva from late Thackeray, and that he had learnt his early lessons in politics from late Anand Dighe. The rebel Sena did not take Uddhav’s name even once in his tweet.
Shinde was later quoted as telling Uddhav’s emissary Milind Narvekar that he was with the “Hindutva”, but the Sena had given up “Hindutva” and that he would not return to the Shiv Sena, thus slamming doors on the Sena.
Unconfirmed reports said that Uddhav — during his meeting the leaders of the MVA that he held at his official residence “Varsha” later in the evening — offered to put in his resignation as the chief minister if it anyway helped to find a solution to the current crisis facing his government.
In the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, The opposition BJP has 106 MLAs. The ruling Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs, NCP (53), Congress (44), while the respective strengths of other smaller parties are as follows: Bahujan Vikas Agahdi (three), Samajwadi Party, AIMIM and Prahar Janshakti Party two each, MNS, CPI-M, PWP, Swabhimani Paksha, Rashtriya Samaj Party, Jansurajya Shakti Party and Krantikari Shetkari Paksha have one MLA each. In all, there are 13 independent MLAs.
The MLAs from smaller parties and Independents – who collectively account for 29 – play a crucial role in any government formation in the state.
Though it was not clear till late in the evening as to the exact number of the Shiv Sena MLAs who are with Shinde, informed sources in the Sena said that the figure was anywhere from “30 to 35” MLAs, a figure safe enough for the rebel Sena leader to walk out of the party (having a total strength of 55 MLAs) without attracting the provisions of the anti-defection law.
With the support of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction, the BJP can easily form the new government in the state. Encouraged by the emerging prospect of forming a government, the BJP has reportedly offered the deputy chief minister's post to Shinde in lieu of his and his MLAs' support to the new government.
It may be recalled that on November 26,2019 -- after being sworn as the deputy chief minister in the BJP-led government along with Devendra Fadnavis as the chief minister -- Ajit Pawar had pulled out of the new dispensation, thus spoiling the chances of Fadnavis’ efforts to form a government without the Shiv Sena’s support.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil claimed that his party had nothing to do with Shinde-related developments in the Shiv Sena, but hastened to add that if his party received "any proposal" from the rebel Sena leader to form a government, it would "definitely consider it".