Mumbai: Having emerged as kingmaker in Mumbai post the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde is likely to bargain hard for power-sharing in not just the BMC but other corporations of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region too.
To keep his flock together, Shinde Saturday moved all of his 29 newly elected BMC corporators to a five-star hotel in Mumbai, bringing back memories of “resort politics”.
The surprise move came despite the Shiv Sena and ally BJP crossing the halfway mark of 114 to get 118 seats together in the 227-ward BMC, ending the Thackeray family’s over two-decade-long hold on the country’s richest civic body.
Sena sources told ThePrint that newly elected corporators and party workers want the BJP to share the mayor post with them for two-and-a-half years. The BJP has won a solid 89 seats in the corporation.
Although Shinde has not given any official proposal to the BJP or Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis regarding this, workers and corporators are mounting pressure on Shinde for the same, the sources said.
“This is (Shiv Sena founder) Bal Thackeray’s birth centenary year and to honour him, we think the mayor post should be given to the Shiv Sena,” said a party leader not willing to be named.
“Even during the assembly elections, we got good numbers but weren’t given the CM’s post. This time at least, our party workers wish that we should get the mayor post in the BMC for half term,” the leader added.
A second Shiv Sena leader told ThePrint that the party want the first two-and-a-half-year term as mayor. “This is because what if the BJP refuses to accommodate us later? Besides, if we have our mayor in the first half, it can help us in the 2029 (assembly) elections.”
The leader also said there are four important posts in the BMC: Mayor, standing committee chairman, improvement chairman and BEST chairman. “Our demand is that we need two of these, mayor and one other post.”
In the BMC, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena now has 65 seats, down from 84 in 2017 when the party was undivided. Despite the split in 2022, the UBT’s numbers are strong enough. If all non-BJP and Shinde Sena numbers are added, the total comes to 109, close to majority.
Speaking to the media Saturday, Uddhav, in a veiled remark, said: “It’s my dream to install a Shiv Sena (UBT) mayor in Mumbai, and if Dev (god) is willing, this dream will be realised. However, the party is happy with the results that came against all odds.”
He added that the “BJP can stoop to any level and might even poach the corporators of (ally) Shiv Sena to get majority on its own”.
The remark was later referred to by Fadnavis when he said: “I am also called ‘Deva’… now there will be no poaching from anywhere. God above has decided that there will be a Mahayuti (BJP-Shiv Sena alliance) mayor.”
However, Shiv Sena leaders are aware that there is no anti-defection law for local bodies and it is better to keep the flock together.
A third Sena functionary close to Shinde told ThePrint that the BJP needs Shinde more than ever now.
“Shinde is in the kingmaker’s position. Look at the numbers of the BJP. They started off by saying they will get 150 seats on their own, then said they wanted to go solo, then they compromised and came with us. Look at their position. They cannot afford to take us for granted,” the functionary said.
“This is also a posturing not just for Mumbai, but corporations like Thane, Kalyan-Dombivali and others, where we are in a good position to get the mayor post,” he added.
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‘Ghar wapsi’
When the Shiv Sena split in 2022, leading to the collapse of the Uddhav-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, Shinde faction MLAs were packed off to Surat and then to Guwahati and were kept in a hotel. Any poaching fears probably stem from the time.
“The BJP won’t be able to poach our corporators. It will look very bad for them,” the third Sena functionary asserted.
However, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut taunted the party, saying: “Those who engineered a split in the Shiv Sena are now fearing the same would happen to them.”
“I feel strange. Shinde is deputy CM of the state. Fadnavis is CM and home minister. And if Shinde is fearing that his corporators would be poached, abducted in his own state, then this is the biggest joke,” Raut told the media.
He also remarked that the newly elected corporators of the Shinde camp want to do “ghar wapsi (homecoming)”.
“Most of them are Shiv Sainiks and believe the BMC should not have a BJP mayor. The messages that we are getting from them is they want to do ghar wapsi. Let’s see what happens ahead,” Raut added.
However, a Shiv Sena (UBT) leader told ThePrint that “I don’t think that is a possibility”.
“I agree, a few corporators may want to come to our party again, but we need at least 20-odd corporators (for a majority in the BMC). And who will take the risk of leaving the ruling (Mahayuti) alliance and face ED, CBI, IT cases? So, I don’t think anyone is coming to us.”
Officially, Shinde’s Shiv Sena has maintained that the corporators were being shifted for a workshop and programmes and discussions were lined up. The break will also “refresh” them after a “hectic election season”, it said, adding they are expected to stay in the hotel for another two-three days.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)