Eknath Shinde creates a giant size crisis
NCP, Congress leaders tell Uddhav to make Shinde CM
Uddhav pays for his follies
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has almost vacated the high seat. He is moving out of the official residence. Sharad Pawar and Congress leader Kamal Nath, who has been appointed AICC observer in the wake of far-reaching developments, are understood to have suggested at their meeting with Uddhav on Wednesday that Eknath Shinde, the rebel, be made chief minister. Uddhave has told the media that he has kept his resignation letter ready. Sharad Pawar, the maker and savior of the ruling coalition, has typically commented that it is Shiv Sena’s internal problem. Had he had any hope of warding off the threat for the third time, he would have said something positive. If Uddhav agrees to the proposal put forward by NCP and Congress leaders, he has to resign making way for Shinde. If he does not agree, the party will be split and the government would fall. He would have lost the chief minister’s post. Either way he is the loser.
Uddhav Thackeray is paying the price for his follies. He is inaccessible. He does not meet ministers and MLAs on a regular basis. He has not visited the secretariat for six months. He gives a lot of importance to Sanjay Raut, Rajya Sabha Member. His son Aditya Thackeray has been unstoppable. A leader like Eknath Shinde, who is one of the most important leaders in Shiv Sena after the Thackerays, felt ignored and marginalized. Does the sequence sound familiar? The result won’t be different.
What Narendra Modi-Amit Shah did in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and tried to do the same in Maharashtra twice earlier, is being repeated with greater scheming. They have money bags thanks to electoral bonds. The duo does not want to take any chances with presidential elections due on July 18. Even if Nitish Kumar of Bihar votes for the opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, as is his wont, the NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu should win hands down. For that they have mobilized more than thirty MLAs in Maharashtra under the leadership of Eknath Shinde. They are still counting. The only condition Shinde has put to Uddhav Thackeray when the latter called him was that Shiv Sena should walk out of the present ‘unnatural’ coalition and go back for a tie-up with the BJP. Considering the hardened attitude of Uddhav Thackeray towards the BJP, it appears to be an impossible condition. However, Uddhav said on Wednesday that Shiv Sena would not abandon HIndutva. He is understood to have told party MLAs at an emergency meeting that Shinde would return to the party fold. He is either overconfident or ready to make the sacrifice.
With the unscrupulous ways it usually adopts, the BJP can create this kind of trouble to any chief minister of opposition ruled State.
It is ironic that the developments in Maharashtra occurred on the International Yoga Day which Modi observed in Mysore with the palace in the background. Yoga is supposed to be a sublime activity and political skullduggery is entirely different. Modi can manage both. That is his strength and the weakness of Indian democracy.
