The strained Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra reached breaking point on Friday after the Uddhav Thackeray-led party threatened to pull out of the coalition government led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP.
Mr. Thackeray, the Sena president, claimed that BJP, the senior partner in the government, was not allowing his party’s ministers to work, and has called an emergency meeting of all MLAs on Monday to decide on the future of the alliance. The drama began with PWD Minister Eknath Shinde (Sena) resigning.
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Mr. Shinde quit from the Cabinet claiming he was being sidelined in the government. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis responded by saying that the Sena is a “clever drama company.” Earlier at the rally, Mr. Thackeray took on the BJP by invoking the political fate of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi soon after the Emergency ended in 1977. “The people of this country threw her [Mrs. Gandhi] out of power,” he said. “Who are you [the BJP] in front of her? If you don’t mend your ways we will withdraw support from the government.”
“I will tell all of my ministers to resign and bring down the government. If the BJP is going to use government machinery against my men, I will ensure that you bite the dust.”
The Sena has currently five (out of 18) Cabinet Ministers in the State government, including Diwakar Raote (Transport), Subhash Desai (Industries and Ports), Ramdas Kadam (Environment), Deepak Sawant (Health), and Eknath Shinde. It also has five (out of 12) Ministers of State.
Since the October 2014 State elections, in which the BJP won 122 seats and the Sena 63, the relationship between the two has always been strained with the latter claiming that Mr. Fadnavis and his party members have been putting roadblocks to stall its work. The Sena had demanded two additional portfolios: Deputy Chief Minister and Revenue. The BJP rejected both demands.
The BJP had fallen short of majority by 22 seats, and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (41 seats) had offered unilateral support to a BJP government, which the central leadership eventually did not accept formally. The Sena was left with no option but to join the government as a junior partner, albeit to thwart NCP grabbing the upper hand at the negotiating table.
However, of late, the BJP and the NCP have been showing signs of warming to each other with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley staying at Mr. Pawar’s house in Baramati in western Maharashtra during a recent visit, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi praising the NCP strongman. This angered the Sena even more.
It is precisely because of the Pawar factor that the BJP may not take Sena’s threats seriously. The NCP chief is scheduled to hold a public rally in Mumbai on Saturday, and his unilateral support to the BJP has helped Mr. Fadnavis maintain a brave face in the wake of Sena’s provocations.
In the last 30 days alone, the Sena has targeted and taunted the BJP over the killing of Mohammed Akhlaq by suspected Hindutva activists who stated that he had stored beef in his house. The Sena had also spoken out against the State’s decision to introduce a drought tax. The Sena had also provoked the BJP by blackening the face of Observer Research Foundation’s Sudheendra Kulkarni for inviting former Pakistan minister Khurshid Kasuri for a book launch, and then bullied the organisers of a ghazal concert featuring Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali into cancelling it.
Meanwhile, later on Friday, senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil tried to calm frayed nerves saying there is nothing to worry about for the two partners, and that “every family faces problems.” He added: “We will sit together and solve it through discussion.”
