Amit Bishnoi
The youth’s agitation against the Agnipath scheme for temporary recruitment to the Sena (the Indian Army) seems to have lost its importance since the defection ghost seized a few Shiv Sena legislators in Maharashtra. The protest against the Agnipath scheme, which has toasted the nation and caused a huge loss to government properties, has gone off the air. Nor is anyone talking about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s grilling by the Enforcement Directorate and about the party’s protest against it. The only question everyone is asking – will Uddhav Thackeray remain the Chief Minister of Maharashtra? If yes, then how long? That has happened after a Shiv Sena leader and Minister of Urban Development in Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government Eknath Shinde made a flight to Gujarat with a few legislators. There is, however, a difference of opinion among political analysts over the number of law-makers Shinde has with him. President of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar, the brain behind the formation of the MVA government, has said that it is the third attempt to dislodge the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. There is, however, nothing new in such attempts to topple an elected state government.
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In May 2016, the ghost of defection seized a few Congress legislators in Uttarakhand, and the then chief minister of the state Harish Rawat was sacked. The President’s rule was imposed. The Supreme Court, however, saved the Harish Rawat-led government. Arunachal Pradesh saw a similar situation in July 2016 when the state was brought under the President’s rule, as the defection ghost had cast a spell on many Congress legislators. Ergo that ended the Congress rule in that state.
The story continued. On March 20, 2020, the evil spirit of defection captured former Union minister and Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia from Madhya Pradesh. He along with 22 legislators defected to the BJP, pulling down the one and a half years old Congress government led by Kamal Nath in the state. The BJP, which lost the battle of ballots in the 2018 assembly election, continued to make efforts to dislodge the Congress government in MP. Immediately after Nath took over as the chief minister, the BJP began to conspire to oust the Nath-led government and they succeeded after a few attempts. Even so, the Congress government was in majority. A similar attempt, made in Rajasthan on July 12, 2020, failed, however.
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What happened in Maharashtra on July 21 this year is akin to what had taken place in Madhya Pradesh in 2020. Shinde has left the state with many legislators, sending the MVA government into a tailspin. Now, Uddhav’s best way to save his government is to woo back Shinde. Should the Shiv Sena remarry the BJP, after all the venom it has spewed against it in the past several years, the party has to play second fiddle. This is the danger that is looming over the Shiv Sena today. The current political uncertainty in Maharashtra is set to consume some more time. After all, the Shiv Sena has kept the Agnipath out of the limelight, which has rendered the Central Government sleepless.
