The state of Maharashtra witnessed a major political turnaround today. No political analyst could have predicted the surprising political turnaround the state witnessed today even as the BJP managed to form the government with Ajit Pawar who was sworn in as the Deputy CM and claims to have the support of 35 NCP MLAs. The biggest loser of this political twist is undoubtedly the Shiv Sena which has not only lost the opportunity of being a part of the Maharashtra government but has also its ideology and prestige.
With the benefit of hindsight, it can be said that the Shiv Sena is not really a victim of the dramatic political turnaround in Maharashtra. It was actually the Uddhav Thackrey-led party that had caused chaos following the Maharashtra Assembly results which had given a clear mandate for the formation of a BJP-Shiv Sena government with Devendra Fadnavis retaining his position as the Chief Minister.
It was Shiv Sena which lost the plot and came up with its absurd 50:50 formula to share the Chief Ministerial position. However, BJP chief Amit Shah had remained calm, he didn’t really make any move that could have proved detrimental to the Shiv Sena. He played the waiting game, giving the Uddhav Thackrey-led party sufficient time to retrospect and fall in line. However, the Shiv Sena remained adamant on its unreasonable demand.
It is also not as if the BJP was being unfair in any way to its pre-poll partner, on account of being the bigger partner in the pre-poll alliance. In fact, the BJP was willing to give the Deputy Chief Minister post and up to 15 cabinet portfolios to the Shiv Sena, a fair deal for a party that had managed to secure 56 seats in the 288-member Assembly. This was in fact, too generous an offer for the Shiv Sena. But the SS made a gross miscalculation and kept trying to punch above its weight.
Amit Shah’s ‘accommodative approach’ towards the SS also becomes clear from what Ramdas Athawale, Republican Party of India (RPI) chief revealed about the Maharashtra political crisis. According to him, BJP President, Amit Shah had assured him that the BJP and the Shiv Sena would come together to form the government. Athawale said, “I told Amit Bhai (BJP President Amit Shah) that if he mediates then a way can be found out to which he (Amit Shah) replied don’t worry, everything will be fine. BJP and Shiv Sena will come together to form the government.” The RPI supremo too had suggested, “I think that Shiv Sena should change its stand. Congress is not ready to support the Sena.”
Despite Athawale’s suggestion, the Uddhav Thackrey-led party failed to see the writing on the wall. Shah’s patience was largely seen by the Shiv Sena as his majboori (helplessness), in face of lack of any alternatives. And thus, despite the BJP and Amit Shah giving enough time to the Shiv Sena to ponder over the dire consequences of its political adventurism. To make matters worse for the Shiv Sena, Sanjay Raut took charge of Shiv Sena’s political adventurism who instilled a false sense of bravado into the Sena and also managed to hoodwink Uddhav that things are going according to the plan. Raut’s crass statements only hurt the Sena as the BJP became more determined to form the government and not let people like Raut have their way in Maharashtra politics. His statements effectively burned all the bridges with the BJP as his statements like ‘The Sena would not ally with the BJP even if they offered Bhagwan Indra’s throne’ took the Sena to a point of no return.
It was again Sanjay Raut who pushed his party into a quagmire with a Common Minimum Programme (CMP) with the NCP and the Congress, both the tenor and content of which gave a clear and unequivocal message to the effect that the Sena was abandoning its ideology. Now, the Shiv Sena seems to be in a tight position, it has emerged as the biggest loser in Maharashtra and cannot even claim the victim card as it is seen as the party which actually engineered the Maharashtra political crisis. The political loss is not just in terms of getting excluded from the process of government formation. In its desperate bid to come to power, the Shiv Sena ended up flirting with its political rivals and giving up on the ‘Hindutva’ ideology that really formed the core of its principles. Now, the BJP has become the sole entity which would occupy the ‘Hindutva’ space within Maharashtra to the exclusion of SS.
Despite having been given sufficient time to retrospect and make amends, the party failed to fall in line. Now, the Shiv Sena seems to have been completely destroyed. When it became absolutely clear that SS had reached a point of no return, Amit Shah made a major political move that has shown Sena its place.