Amit Bishnoi
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s shrewd move to make Eknath Shinde the chief minister and Devendra Fadnavis the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra has surprised many including as astute a politician as Sharad Pawar. Everything seems to be in the hands of the BJP, though it may be for the time being. How the present arrangement will work, only time will tell, as there will be many more moves on the political chess board in Maharashtra. Yet, it is for sure that the BJP has the upper hand over its detractors in the state at the present scenario, while Uddhav Thackeray is in a state of confusion. In the coming days, Shinde will spare no effort to corner the Thackeray family by taking the Shiv Sena cadres into his hand, as he has already said with 39 legislators of the party being with him, he represents the true ideology of Balasaheb Thackeray. Aside from that, there will be a legal battle over the party symbol, the Sena office and 16 legislators who are still with Uddhav. It is still not known what will happen to the 16 rebel legislators, who the deputy speaker of the previous House had issued disqualification notices to. It is also not known how long the 16 legislators will remain with Uddhav, as they would soon be under heavy pressure from the Shinde group to leave the former chief minister’s side.
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In all these acts of the drama, the BJP will play an important role, as it has been doing for the past 31 months since Maha the Vikas Aghadi government took over the reins of power in the state. The BJP believes that Shinde is well connected with the grassroots workers of the Shiv Sena, so they will play the Shinde card till the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The party organisation is eyeing for 48 seats in `24. Aside from that, elections for the Municipal Corporation, the richest of all municipal bodies in the country, will soon be held. The party would naturally like to have full control over it through Shinde. Therefore, the party has a long-term game-plan in the state. Everything will, however, count on how the rebel Sena legislators act in this political drama.
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On the other hand, Uddhav who seems to have lost the match has to work out of his skin to rebuild the party as well as to woo back a few legislators who have gone to Shinde’s fold. Right now, his objective is to keep the cadres, the symbol and the party office with him. To do that, Uddhav has to weather the storm as well as to move its direction towards his detractors. Since he has the capability to work in any situation which his calmness indicates, he has to prepare for playing a Test match on a sticky wicket.
