Mumbai: Ahead of assembly elections in Maharashtra, the ruling Mahayuti alliance appears to be in a fix — whether or not to project CM Eknath Shinde as its chief ministerial prospect.
While leaders of all three constituents of the Mahayuti (BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP) have agreed publicly to contest the assembly elections under Shinde’s leadership, there is still no consensus on who will be the face of the alliance if the Mahayuti were to hold on to power in the state.
Whichever party has the highest number of seats will stake claim to the chief minister’s post, said a leader from the state BJP, who did not wish to be named.
“Amit Shah has clearly said that after the upcoming elections, Mahayuti will form the government, so there is no argument over the chief minister’s post,” BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule told the media Wednesday. “Eknath Shinde is the CM now but since BJP has more constituencies and since we have more number of seats, it is natural that we will form the government under our leadership,” he added.
As for the NCP faction led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, the party is on board with going into the elections with Shinde at the helm, but is keeping its cards close to the chest when asked about a post-poll strategy.
“We will campaign as Mahayuti under the leadership of Eknath Shinde,” NCP leader Anand Paranjpe told ThePrint. “This (issue) was even addressed by Devendra Fadnavis during the Mahayuti joint address at Shanmukhananda Hall a few days back. But (what will happen) post election, it is too early to comment,” he added.
“We will go to the polls under the leadership of Eknath Shinde. This was clearly communicated even by Devendra Fadnavis,” Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat told ThePrint.
“Ofcourse, Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar will also be leading the alliance. Shinde is the CM now. Post election, I am sure, all leaders will take a call. But there is no confusion about Shinde’s leadership right now,” he added.
Shinde, however, has already begun laying the groundwork to project himself as the Mahayuti’s chief ministerial face, as was apparent in the contents of the state’s annual Budget presented on 28 June. The term ‘Mukhyamantri’ (chief minister) was used in the names of a number of populist schemes mentioned in the budget.
In addition, newspaper advertisements and hoardings with the tagline ‘Madaticha Haath, Eknath’ (Eknath, the helping hand) are now a common sight in the state.
‘Shinde is no Modi, why should we accept him?’
Since 2022, when Shinde rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray and joined hands with BJP to form a government in Maharashtra under his leadership, the lifelong Sena worker has emerged as a leader to reckon with in Maharashtra.
Even during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, though the Mahayuti performed dismally, the Sena led by Shinde had a better strike rate amongst all the three constituents of the ruling alliance. Of the 15 seats it contested, Sena won 7, while BJP won 9 of 28 seats it contested and the NCP led by Ajit Pawar only 1 of the 4 seats where its candidate was in the fray.
The outcome of the general election may embolden the Sena to eye more seats in the Mahayuti’s seat-sharing formula for the assembly polls, which will be discussed later.
“We have a better strike rate and proved that we could perform. People have shown their trust in Shinde’s leadership. Had we contested more seats in Lok Sabha, we could have won more. So naturally, we will need a respectable number of seats during assembly,” said a Sena functionary on condition of anonymity.
This, however, has led to some discomfort among the NCP and BJP.
“I don’t think we will agree with Shinde’s face. After all, it is an alliance working under collective leadership, so why should we project one party’s leader as the CM face. Our view is that we will see the results and take a call,” said an NCP leader who did not wish to be named.
“This is a political alliance, not an administrative alliance. After the elections, we will see who the CM will be. Because as a party, we consider Ajit Pawar as our leader, not Eknath Shinde. He (Shinde) is no Narendra Modi, so why should we accept him?” the leader asked.
The BJP, on the other hand, is aiming for the most number of seats as part of the Mahayuti’s seat-sharing formula for the assembly polls.
According to a state BJP functionary, it was discussed during a meeting of the Maharashtra BJP core committee earlier this month that the party is looking to field candidates on at least 160 of the total 288 assembly seats.
Whereas, the Sena wants to contest at least 100 seats.
The NCP, meanwhile, is trying to stake claim to at least 80-90 seats. “Why should we not when BJP can take 160 and Shinde wants 100, why should we stay behind?” asked the NCP leader quoted earlier.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)