Those watching the present political crisis in Maharashtra unfolding were convinced from the very start that the exit of Uddhav Thackeray from the CM’s post and a return of the BJP to power in the state were a fait accompli. A large number of Shiv Sena legislators having been taken away by rebel leader and urban development minister Eknath Shinde to far-away Assam. Even a master strategist like Sharad Pawar could only blink and scurry for cover.
That this was in the offing was clear as sunlight after the Shiv Sena ditched the BJP and did what came naturally to the Thackerays – do muscle-flexing, and break up the long-held alliance with it for the obvious purpose of grabbing the CM’s post. This was when the BJP won double the number of seats compared to what the Sena could get in the 2019 polls. Such a questionable act was followed by the cobbling of a Sena-NCP-Congress alliance that was against the very spirit of the people’s verdict. With all the power in its command at the Centre, the BJP could only sit back and bide its time. Eknath Shinde was next only to Uddhav Thackeray when it came to mass support in the Shiv Sena. That high aura also resulted in the CM and his minister-son Aditya suffocating him in the ministry. That the CM scooted from the scene in a huff on Wednesday evening by hurriedly exiting from official residence Varsha was proof he lost the game. Politics is a dirty game. With Pawar around, politics in Maharashtra was hugely vitiated and corruption was the byword for ministers in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Proof is also the jailing of two ministers in corruption cases and a third being framed by the ED.
The grim episodes like the bar bribe case, in which an NCP minister allegedly forced the Mumbai cops to collect a hundred crore for him or his party as bribe every month from the bars there, only showed how the system of democracy was being rubbished. As per the statement from a top cop, both the CM and Pawar simply dismissed such complaints. From the very start, the CM was proving his ineptness in running the government. The Covid crisis had battered Maharashtra – not just Mumbai – the worst under his direct watch. Notably, the Shiv Sena had split in the past too, but the central edifice remained intact. All eyes are now on the Thackerays as to how they would weather this storm.
