The coming of a new government in Maharashtra

Finally, Uddhav Thackeray is out and Eknath Shinde is in as chief minister of Maharashtra. In the last assembly elections, the BJP and Shiv Sena fought the elections together against the Congress-NCP front. Though the BJP-Shiv Sena combine won the elections, the process of government formation was delayed because Shiv Sena wanted someone from them as chief minister. They claimed that that was the understanding between them and the BJP when they fought the elections jointly. The BJP denied it which prolonged the process of government formation.

While this was on, an alternate route for the formation of a Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government was being explored. However, before this combine took the initiative to form the government, one fine morning BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis and NCP’s Ajit Pawar were sworn in as the chief minister and deputy chief minister.  Here we must remember that before Ajit Pawar sided with Devendra Fadnavis a number of cases were slapped against him by the ED. But once Pawar agreed to collaborate with Fadnavis, all the cases against him were withdrawn.

The formation of the Fadnavis government was contested in the SC and finally, Uddhav Thackeray took the oath of office as the chief minister of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine. The three-party coalition was known as Maha Vikash Aghadi (MVA). Why did BJP and Shiv Sena break their alliance despite both the parties following the same Hindutva ideology? BJP’s core ideology is Hindu, Hindi and Hindutva.

Though Shiv Sena’s ideology is also Hindutva, they are more committed to Marathi nationalism. They share Hindutva sentiments with the BJP, but they are not ready to sacrifice Marathi nationalism only for Hindutva. Rather they would like to see Hindutva as the manifestation of Marathi nationalism. Here, Shiv Sena is different from the ASSU and AGP of Assam.

Uddhav Thackeray was a reluctant chief minister. He was goaded to this position by Sharad Pawar. Though Thackeray didn’t have any administrative experience, he efficiently run the MVA government following the Raj Dharma.

Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra is also the economic capital of India. Maharashtra is an important state in Western India. Any happening in Maharashtra affects its neighbouring states. When there is an all-powerful government at the centre how could there be a non-BJP government in Maharashtra, that too in collaboration with Congress? So dislodging the MVA government in Maharashtra was the main agenda of the central government from day one of the formation of the MVA government.

During its two and half years tenure, there had been many attempts to topple this government. A number of ministers of the erstwhile Thackeray government are already languishing in jail. The ED is now the best weapon for toppling the government. Once Ajit Pawar was coerced to extend support to Devendra Fadnavis by slapping cases of economic offence against him. But all those cases were withdrawn when he agreed to support Fadnavis.

Why did so many Shiv Sena MLAs extend support to Eknath Shinde? It was only because of the fear of the ED. Though they were saying that it was for their love of Hindutva that was not the case at all. As it is we know how opportunistic these politicians are? Siding with Eknath Shinde they would get plum posts otherwise they would be thrown into jail. Who will prefer jail to a plum post? So it is no surprise that the majority of the MLAs sided with Eknath Shinde. But even after all this, what route did they take to form the government? First, they herded their MLAs to Surat. Then, they were brought to Guwahati and finally, they reached Mumbai via Goa.

What a process of government formation? The state machinery has always been used by ruling parties for political purposes. But never has it been so gross and brazen as has it happened now under the present dispensation.