Maharashtra is set for a change in its engine for development yet once again! After the three-pronged Maha Vikas Aghadi Government, it’s the turn of the ‘Double-engine’ Shinde-Fadnavis regime to rule Maharashtra. The Opposition, however, does not seem to be too happy with the new alliance. This is evident from the fact that within a couple of hours of Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis taking the oath for chief minister and deputy chief minister respectively, the Shinde cabinet straightaway overturned the MVA Government’s decision to put a halt to the metro-car shed construction project in Aarey forest. It is known to everybody that ‘Aarey’ was Fadnavis’s baby, ratified when Fadnavis was Maharashtra chief minister. And he picked it up again. Thursday night chief minister Shinde left for Goa to meet with his band of rebel MLAs, leaving deputy chief minister Fadnavis to savour his Aarey victory, which came soon after the major setback to his standing, his demotion to deputy chief minister. Can’t be karma, right?
That said, these past couple of days, sections of the media have been labelling Uddhav Thackeray “the reluctant chief minister” alluding to talk that it was only on the persistent insistence of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar that Uddhav Thackeray agreed to don the chief minister’s hat. Now, Pawar says he has seen the hardly reluctant disappointment on Fadnavis’s well-televised face. And Pawar said that what he saw was reflective of what Fadnavis has been sentenced to, i.e., face and undergo the humiliation he’s in for, under Shinde’s command. But then, Pawar is biased and would like nothing better than to see Shinde and Fadnavis at each other’s throats. This brings back all of us to the question, will chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis be able to get along like the proverbial fire, or will the two be snapping at each other at some point of time shortly? That said, which of the two holds the real clout? Only the naïve will not believe that Devendra Fadnavis wouldn’t be calling the shots. Without a doubt, the decision to give up chief ministership must have been thrust upon Fadnavis by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Home minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda can at best only be conduits, in that order! Nadda said that Fadnavis selflessly gave up his ownership of the chief minister’s post for the greater good and sounded so hollow that you could make a flute out of it. And then within two minutes, there was Amit Shah lauding Fadnavis for the same reason, being selfless! Whosoever said the BJP has robots for leaders wasn’t speaking from hiding.
Chief minister Eknath Shinde will be forever indebted to Modi and forever cautious that he doesn’t stray from the BJP’s trodden path. Shinde is more or less already painted with the BJP brush. And Uddhav Thackeray can rest easy. After naming his rebel group Balasaheb Shiv Sena, Eknath Shinde can no longer linger over Thackeray’s Shiv Sena name, and election symbol. That doesn’t mean the real Shiv Sena would be free of poaching and perchance even decimation. The annihilation of the Shiv Sena is the climax pictured by the BJP. Allowing Shinde to play big brother to Fadnavis is the BJP’s way of keeping Hindutva under one roof. It could also be another step to ensure Modi becomes a third-time Prime Minister. The hoi polloi, the ‘Janata’ in the BJP, should know that everybody in the BJP is cued, tuned, and programmed to serve only one man, take forward that one man’s programs, build around his ambitions a cult – that man, Prime Minister Narendra Modi! By the time Modi is through with India, there wouldn’t be another man standing up to him. And Maharashtra cannot be aloof to Modi’s plans for India.
