Maha Satta: Shiv Sena, BJP face off for richest civic corp

Mumbai: The faceoff between Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena) and erstwhile CM Devendra Fadnavis (BJP) has assumed critical mass with neither now willing to yield an inch on the state’s political battleground.

Thackeray, anointed as Sena Chief back in 2005, chose a more nuanced and amiable candour starting off as the working president of the Shiv Sena and even shed the signature militant style posturing of his party Supremo and father Balasaheb Thackeray. Two and a half years after assuming the post of CM, however, Thackeray now feels compelled to return to the old Shiv Sena style and accompanying militant posturing to keep an incessant BJP at bay.

BJP MLA Fadnavis, on the other hand, has always been articulate, knowledgeable and even soft-spoken, after finding a voice after being anointed CM by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 in supersession of party seniors. His five-year tenure as CM was distinct for his constant pampering and cajoling of his alliance partner in government, the Shiv Sena.

This was evident even after the 2017 elections to the richest civic corporation in India– the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)--when the two parties fought against each other. The Sena won the battle with 85 councillors elected (strength now over 90) against the BJP’s 83 councillors. Yet, Fadnavis strangely did not stake a claim to the post of leader of the opposition (LOP) for his party, meekly handing it on a platter to the Congress party with its 35-odd councillors. While Fadnavis thought he was keeping the Sena happy for the bigger battles of the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections coming in 2019, little did he know that the Sena (56 MLAs) would abandon its alliance with the BJP (105 MLAs) and form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra with the NCP (54 MLAs) and Congress (44 MLAs).

Now, Fadnavis has decidedly turned aggressive and thrown down the gauntlet with a single-minded resolve to wrest the BMC from the Sena--a task that would have been better served had he staked his party’s rightful claim to the LOP post in BMC in 2017.

For CM Thackeray, following incessant attacks upon his government by the BJP, it’s back to the Sena roots- -including arresting Union Minister for micro, small and medium enterprises Narayan Rane (BJP) and his MLA son Nitesh Rane for pejorative utterances against him. More recently, the independent MP and MLA couple from Amravati, Ravi Rana and Navneet Rana, respectively, were jailed for over 12 days after they threatened to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Uddhav Thackeray’s Bandra residence.

One thing is amply clear in Maharashtra today. Both these leaders have donned the cloak of aggressive politicians in stark contrast to how they had started off in their respective political careers.