Opposition-mukt Maharashtra?

BJP is seeking to disrupt Uddhav Thackeray's plans for unity with his estranged cousin Raj Thackeray of the MNS.

By Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari

A strange thing, this. Opposition is withering away in Maharashtra. It is happening sooner rather than later. The resurgent BJP is gaining ground day-by-day, after stabilizing its hold on power following its performance in the assembly polls six months ago.

It does not mean that the Devendra Fadnavis government is doing a great job, but that the opposition has virtually lost the will to fight in the land of the Marathas, known for their bravery and doggedness amid tremendous odds.

The Opposition detests being there

One may like it or not, but the fact is that being in the opposition is not politically fashionable nowadays. In fact, it is being detested by a majority of the leaders at various levels of the non-BJP parties, who have been forced to carry the opposition cross.

Just till the other day, there was talk of a merger between Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Ajit Pawar’s party, which is a key constituent of the BJP-led coalition, with its leader being the Deputy CM.

The 84-year-old veteran leader has now said that his party would not associate with anyone working with the BJP.  It might have its repercussions in his party, where some of his 10 MLAs are pitching for such a merger. In the changed situation, the elder Pawar is no longer the Maratha strongman.

Such a situation means an advantage for the BJP, which has emerged as the prima donna of the politics in the key state. It took the saffron party ten long years to stabilise after forming its first government in the state way back in 2014. It was catapulted to power in Maharashtra some six months after the Modi wave in the Lok Sabha polls that year, which changed the political vibes.

Advantage BJP ahead of the civic polls

The splits in the Shiv Sena and the NCP have already made the opposition weak. The Congress is rudderless. BJP is seeking to disrupt Uddhav Thackeray's plans for unity with his estranged cousin Raj Thackeray of the MNS.

As of today, it will be a surprise if Uddhav and Raj unite. State parties like PWP are also losing their bite in the limited areas they have been active, and similar is the case with Raj’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Raj certainly has charisma but failed to cut much ice politically, after brief success, for not being consistent. Prakash Ambedkar might be making all pro-opposition noises, but experience is that at the end he indirectly ensures that the BJP benefits.

This means that it is advantage BJP all the way at present when the civic elections, touted as the mini Assembly polls, are some six months away.

Diminishing of Sharad Pawar

Sharad Pawar’s declaration is that he and the NCP headed by him are not going to join anyone associated with the BJP and will carry forward the legacy of Congress thought. But this is easier said than done after playing opportunistic politics since parting ways with Congress on the issue of Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin in 1999.

It looks as if BJP’s Demolition Sharad Pawar project is almost complete. The ball is now in Pawar’s court to prove his detractors wrong.

The problem in Maharashtra is that the Ayaram-Gayarams have virtually become heroes in the state, which had witnessed splits and desertions for power in the last three to four years and was endorsed by the Election Commission. Even the top court in the country could not check it.

Ajit Pawar's NCP has been justifying breaking bread with the BJP by insisting that development is not possible without power. It is thereby suggesting that power is its ideology, and it can go with anyone for power. In fact, a section of MLAs in Sharad Pawar’s party too are singing the ‘development’ tune.

And Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, claiming the legacy of the late Balasaheb Thackeray, has virtually stopped talking about Marathi Manoos. Though it is trying to project itself as a Hindutva hardliner, it knows that it cannot surpass the BJP on Hindutva simply because its brand of Hindutva lacks the approval of the RSS and Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and Yogi Adityanath.

If seen in a larger perspective, ‘Eknath Shinde’ is a brand created by the BJP to further its cause and decimate the Sena. Now the BJP’s purpose is served.

Clueless in countering a different BJP

The tragedy is that at such a critical juncture, the opposition in the state has been lacking a new strategy, language, and grammar to counter the BJP in its new avatar. The worst thing is that the opposition lacks a leader who can take everyone along and promise a new deal to the people not enamoured with the new dispensation.

After humbling his detractors in the opposition as well as the BJP in the state, Fadnavis is on cloud nine. At a recent media interaction, he remarked “If the opposition fights us, we will welcome it. But where are they?”

(Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari are journalists.)

Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.