For some time, Maharashtra politics has been in a messed-up situation. The appointment of Eknath Shinde as the state’s Chief Minister and Uddhav Thackeray’s decline in reputation has pushed state politics into the doldrums. Regarding this, both the factions are now ordered to prove themselves as the torch bearers.

EC over Shiv Sena

Recently, the Election Commission has ordered Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray to prove that they alone hold the majority support of MLAs and MPs in Shiv Sena. It has asked both the rivals to submit signed letters of support in the party’s legislative and organizational wings, in addition to a written statement by August 8.

On the one hand, the Uddhav faction has approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the EC’s order. The Uddhav camp said that EC doesn’t have the right to decide who the real Shiv Sena is. As reported by IndiaToday, the petition included allegations against the Shinde faction, that in acts of desperation and to portray a majority, it is trying to illegally grab the numbers and fabricate an artificial majority in the organization.

On the other hand, CM Eknath Shinde accepted the EC’s directives by saying, “The Election Commission wrote to us. We will take our stand in front of the EC. We are Shiv Sena. We have 50 MLAs, and in Lok Sabha, 2/3rd of the members are with us.”

Apart from this, instead of owning up to the mistakes, Sanjay Raut, Uddhav’s right-hand man, said that Delhi is “trying to destroy the party.” He further included that the party was established by Balasaheb Thackeray around 56 years ago and “Uddhav Thackeray is the only leader of Shiv Sena today.”

All this can be viewed as a political tactic to save Shiv Sena from the clutches of Uddhav Thackeray. The appointment of Devendra Fadnavis as the deputy CM was a strategic move by the BJP to save Maharashtra from the unholy alliance of Maha Vikas Aghadi.

Shinde becoming the next choice

As reported by TFI, Eknath Shinde is a staunch Shiv Sainik who got guidance directly from Bala Saheb Thackeray and Thane’s Anand Dighe. He rebelled against the CM Uddhav Thackeray on the Hindutva plank. Is that everything was going well for the Hindutva party Shiv Sena till Uddhav’s greed for power trumped the Hindutva ideology.

With the elections, it became apparent that Shinde holds more confidence in support from the party MLAs and MPs, which further proved a dilapidated state for Thackerays. Eknath Shinde has the numbers on his side and may revive the original Shiv Sena.

Legal Terms of the EC’s order

Amid the brow-beaten rivalry between the two factions, it’s imperative to recognize Shiv Sena with a single head. Legally, in case of a party divide, the political segment is allocated to the one who enjoys the maximum amount of support from the party MLAs and MPs.

In the fulfillment of the same, it’s significant for Shinde and Thackeray to prove their majority, to recognize Shiv Sena with its most favored representative.

It’s not the first time that the Election Commission is focusing on the fulfillment of this formality. The same happened with the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of Ram Vilas Paswan. His son tried to represent the political party as his hierarchical successor when he died. However, Pashupati Paswan held the favor of the majority of party MLAs and MPs. Thus, as per the rule, EC recognized LJP with Pashupati Paswan as its next leader.

The same anecdote can be seen being repeated in Maharashtra as well. Currently, Shiv Sena can be said to be existing in a dilapidated state. The party was initially a Hindutva idea of Balasaheb Thackeray. His aspirations came with the united party, however, that became unlikely under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray. Now with Shinde holding the current flagship of the state, Uddhav not only lost the throne but he is also bound to lose the party as well.

Eknath Shinde’s list of objections reveals the rot that Uddhav Thackeray brought with his rise as CM

What is the biggest challenge for the regional parties? The answer to that is their over-dependence on leaders of one family. This can be fatal especially when the dynastic leader proves to be politically incompetent. This has happened many times in Indian polity at the national and state level but what is now unfolding in Maharashtra is unparalleled. This has in a way ended the myth of invincibility of Thackerays in Shiv Sena.

It is not Uddhav Ji’s Shiv Sena anymore

The unholy tripartite alliance of the ideologically opposed parties to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was never stable and had conflicts of its own. But what seemed to be impossible earlier has happened in Maharashtra politics. It is neither the Congress nor the NCP which has exploded; rather it is the ‘ideologically’ committed Shiv Sena. It has in a way thrown out its own party Supremo Uddhav Ji under the bus for betraying the Hindutva ideology of Balasaheb’s Shiv Sena.

Facing utter humiliation for over two-and-a-half years, the patience of Shiv Sainiks ran out. The party legislatures opened a rebellion against the all-powerful and “Best’ CM Uddhav Thackeray. Under the able leadership of Eknath Shinde majority of the party, MLAs shifted out of the state and resurrected the original ideology of BalaSaheb’s SS.

The ‘Best’ CM tried to pull a remarkable comeback and made an emotional appeal to all these MLAs which badly backfired on him, resulting in a strengthening of the numbers on Shinde Camp. This emotional appeal by Uddhav Ji got an honest reply on what and where he went wrong and compromised with the party ideology.

Explosive letter

On 22nd June, Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat from the Aurangabad (West) Assembly seat wrote a crisp letter in response to the feeble CM’s emotional appeal. This last resort appeal of the CM was to save himself from the inevitable political doom. In the letter, MLA pointed out how the party MLAs had to suffer humiliation while the constituent parties kept rejoicing and flourished at the expense of Shiv Sena.

Sena MLA Shirsat in the letter wrote, “While we weren’t able to meet the Chief Minister, people from our ‘real opposition’– the Congress and the NCP used to get opportunities to meet him and even funds were given to them related to work in their constituencies”.

The MLA reflected the anguish of all the party members on issues of unfounded mistrust within the party. He asked, “The Shiv Sena votes did not split in the Rajya Sabha polls, then why so much distrust in us for the Legislative Council polls?”.

The MLA took a pot shot at the party’s ‘ubiquitous’ spokesperson Sanjay Raut and said, “Chanakya would always trump us”.

He added, “We used to call people around the CM but they never used to attend our calls. We were fed up with all these things and persuaded Eknath Shinde to take this step.”

The MLA poured his grief over not being allowed to visit Ram Mandir along with CM’s son Aditya Thackeray. He questioned Uddhav Ji on why the party which claimed to be the flag bearer of Hindutva had such restrictions? He wrote, “When Hindutva and Ram Mandir are crucial issues for the party, then why did the party stop us from visiting Ayodhya”.

Dejected by CM’s emotional tardy response, he said I am writing this letter as you didn’t answer our basic questions. In the letter, he wrote, “Today we are with Shinde with the belief that his home, which has always been open to us in difficult circumstances, will remain so. Yesterday, whatever you said made us emotional. But I did not get answers to basic questions. So, to convey my feelings to you, I had to write this emotional letter”.

Unlike Uddhav Ji, BalaSaheb Thackeray politically controlled puppets not the other way round

You must have seen the news report that claims, Sharad Pawar was deciding all the decisions of the government. Further, it is also claimed that if anyone can save the MVA alliance it is Sharad Pawar alone. Does this not indicate that the Supremo of Shiv Sena was reduced to the second fiddle of Sharad Pawar. Decisions Good or bad were all taken by NCP chief Sharad Pawar high jacking the government. Pawar for his nefarious political agenda took Shiv Sena for a ride and kept pushing it away from Hindutva.

Unlike him, his late father was always in command whether win or loss. He used to pull strings of all political figures, not the other way round. But the rebellion for the Hindutva causes emphasis it much more the need for regional parties to allow its leadership to go beyond incompetent dynasts and only meritious political heirs like Eknath Shinde should have command of the Hindutva party. So, better for the “Best’ CM to digest the fact that Shiv Sena is not his anymore.

References:

tfipost.com