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This promised to be the mother of all battles, but died at birth.
Congressional plans to exploit the rift within the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra legislative council polls appear to have skyrocketed, due to discord within the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (PCN) stood up, to ensure that Congress had to back down on its decision to present a second candidate, who otherwise would have forced an election.
The nine seats in the Maharashtra legislative council will go to the polls. Shiv Sena Prime Minister and President Uddhav Thackeray will contest his first election, defusing the constitutional crisis looming in his government, as he was not a member of either chamber of the legislature nearly six months after coming to power.
While Shiv Sena and NCP decided to present two candidates each (Uddhav and the council’s vice president, Dr. Neelam Gorhe and Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari, respectively), Congress was left with only one seat, as the BJP had nominated four candidates.
Congress announced the candidacy of Rajesh Rathod, who belongs to the Banjara community, which has a presence in parts of Vidarbha and Marathwada.
Rathod, the son of former MLC Dhondiram Rathod, is said to be a candidate for Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat, who is also the Chairman of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congressional Committee (MPCC).
After Rathod’s nomination was announced on Saturday, Congress surprised by declaring a second candidate: Rajkishore ‘Papa’ Modi.
The man, who shares a surname with the Prime Minister, is a leader of the Beed District Congress in Marathwada, and heads the district unit. Modi, who controls educational institutions on and around the pilgrimage between Ambejogai, is said to be in the good books of BJP leader and former Minister for Rural Development Pankaja Munde and her Beed MP sister Dr. Pritam Munde .
Pankaja, the daughter of the late BJP leader, late Gopinath Munde, faced a surprising defeat in recent assembly polls, and was in contention for a legislative council nomination, along with other high-ranking leaders such as Eknath Khadse, Chandrashekhar Bavankule and Vinod Tawade.
But, the BJP came as a surprise by nominating a set of four new faces (Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, Pravin Datke, Gopichand Padalkar, and Dr. Ajit Gopchade), in a decision that had a strong impression on the former Prime Minister and opposition head. Devendra Fadnavis. Pankaja and Khadse, who were on trial but ultimately lost, are seen as Fadnavis’s rivals within the party, and were once launched as aspiring chief ministers.
Congressional leaders said that by forcing a poll, they could divide the BJP’s votes in the secret ballot, in a setback for the subsequent vote. Congress, as a high-ranking leader admitted, had the support of anti-Fadnavis lobby lawmakers to navigate, and was therefore “certain of a victory.”
The MVA has the support of 171 legislators in the 288-member legislative assembly, which forms the electoral college for this survey. If an election were to take place on May 21, a candidate would need to obtain a quota of 28.8 preference votes to navigate.
In the past, legislative council elections have yielded unpleasant surprises. In 2010, Anil Parab of Shiv Sena, who is now the Minister of Transport in the Thackeray regime, and is one of Uddhav’s close confidants, was defeated by an independent Vijay Sawant, supported by Congress. In 2006, the Shiv Sena, who was in the rear after the opposition’s then-leader, Narayan Rane, who was its former Chief Minister, resigned to join Congress (Sena leaders contend that he was expelled), had faced a similar setback.
Then Shiv Sena’s Vijay Loke was defeated by Rane’s candidate and Congress candidate Rajan Teli.
Congressional leaders said they were confident of their ability to get the extra votes to win a victory and turn the tables on the BJP.
However, Shiv Sena and NCP were offended by the decision by Congress to present another candidate, and Uddhav reportedly even threatened to abstain from the poll. Finally, Congress had to capitulate a day after announcing its candidates, and only Rathod was left in the fray. This will ensure that the nine nominees are chosen without opposition.
Shiv Sena and the NCP leaders felt that forcing an election would be a bad optics at a time when Maharashtra is fighting an uphill battle against the coronavirus. With the chief minister in the fray, the Sena wanted to make sure he was elected without opposition instead of facing an electoral fight.
The spread of the disease, discontent among ministers at what is perceived as a bureaucratic-led regime, and an unseemly confrontation between top IAS officials that led to the transfer of Mumbai’s civic chief Pravinsinh Pardeshi, already they have taken a little shine off the government.
In the event of an election, ensuring that 288 members of the legislature can travel to Mumbai and vote in the midst of a pandemic would have been a logistical and public health nightmare.
Although Congress may have withdrawn for now, the final word on this episode may not have been said so far.
Congress believes that Shiv Sena and the NCP have pushed him aside. He is upset with the NCP, which has already left with most of the plum wallets dominating the government.
In the recent Rajya Sabha elections, Congress was forced to give up its demand for two seats. While the PCN obtained two of its nominees, elected to the upper house of Parliament, the Shiv Sena and Congress had to settle for one each.
Congress was said to insist on contesting two legislative councils, with the PCN fighting from just one, but the demand was rejected.
Congressional leaders admit in private conversations that the decision to unite with a “communal” party like Shiv Sena was not an easy one, as it ran the risk of alienating its central voting base.
A faction loyal to former President of Congress Rahul Gandhi is said to be upset by the decision, furthermore, as Congress and Sena cannot agree on a variety of issues such as the Hindu ideologist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and the Registry. National of Citizens. (NRC)
Congress may have pulled out of the fray for now, but as is evident, the bitterness at this obvious loss of face will endure, as will the feeling of being brief.
The future of this improbable and convenient alliance may depend on the relationship between Shiv Sena and NCP with Congress in the coming weeks.
(The author is a journalist and author of the book ‘The Thackeray Cousins: Uddhav, Raj and the Shadow of their Seine’. The opinions are personal)
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