Mumbai: After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena inked their poll pact last week, agreeing to share all responsibilities and posts equally, whispers among senior BJP leaders suggested the “sharing” did not apply to chief ministership. It irked the Shiv Sena, creating a rift right at the outset.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis immediately stepped in. He stated that only what he and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said about the alliance was the “official version”, and thus put an end to the Shiv Sena’s unease.
The way Fadnavis handled the situation as well as the negotiations for the alliance was for many reminiscent of another BJP leader, a popular power broker who is credited with being the architect of the party’s alliance with the Shiv Sena.
In 1989, when the two parties came together for ‘Hindutva’, BJP’s Mahajan was hailed as the alliance’s troubleshooter.
Thirty years later, as the two parties navigate the vagaries of a political tie-up after a brief, but bitter, split, Fadnavis has emerged as the key deal-clincher and troubleshooter, deftly stepping into the shoes of the late Mahajan.
Yet, say political experts and party insiders, there are several stark differences between Fadnavis and Mahajan’s approach, as well as the situations that have propelled them as mediators for the saffron alliance.
Throwback
In 1989, as now, the BJP and the Shiv Sena’s alliance was catalysed by political compulsions. There is, however, one difference.
Back then, Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s Hindutva push threatened the BJP, prompting the then nine-year-old party to forge an alliance to establish itself in Maharashtra.
For the Shiv Sena, the alliance helped expand its reach beyond Mumbai and Thane and made it a significant political force in the state.
Fast forward to 2019, the BJP is a major player in Maharashtra and does not need to ride piggyback on the Shiv Sena’s popularity.
“Today, both parties need the alliance because they know that if opposition parties are coming together, they can lose power,” said political commentator Prakash Bal.
“Moreover, Bal Thackeray was a much bigger personality than Uddhav Thackeray is. So, while Pramod Mahajan used to feed the ego of Bal Thackeray, Fadnavis and Uddhav Thackeray have a more working relationship,” Bal added. “Both know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”
Fadnavis has been a constant proponent of the alliance with the Shiv Sena, which was founded in 1966.
According to Bal, amid the differences between the Sena and the BJP during the 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections, Fadnavis was unsettled by murmurs of a possible alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which prompted him to emphasise right in the beginning that the Shiv Sena was their only natural ally.
The BJP state unit won the 2014 state assembly polls under Fadnavis’ leadership on an anti-corruption plank, especially targeting senior NCP leaders embroiled in the irrigation scam.
In the years since, Fadnavis has always kept back-channel talks with Uddhav alive.
Fadnavis’ political posturing throughout his term as CM was centred on demonstrating the BJP’s strength to the Sena while not antagonising it beyond a point.
For instance, when the two parties went solo for the 2017 polls to the Mumbai civic body, the Shiv Sena’s turf, Fadnavis steered the BJP to mount a neck-and-neck contest and ended up with just two corporators short of the Sena’s tally.
However, though the BJP could have juggled numbers and installed its own mayor to dislodge the Sena from its bastion, Fadnavis chose to take a backseat. He relinquished the party’s claim on mayorship as well as the position of opposition leader, and instead expressed his wish to work with the Shiv Sena.
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Fadnavis and the Shiv Sena
According to a senior BJP leader, former state party chief Fadnavis didn’t fully understand the importance of having Shiv Sena as an ally till he came to Mumbai, the party’s stronghold, as CM.
Soon afterwards, he established a good rapport with not just Uddhav, but even his close confidants in the Sena’s administrative ranks. He also kept Shiv Sena’s Subhash Desai, a senior state cabinet minister said to have been one of Uddhav’s emissaries in the recent negotiations, on his side.
“In some ways, Fadnavis massaged Uddhav Thackeray’s bruised ego, but while making his point. And that is one major similarity between Pramodji and him,” the BJP leader said.
“Everything wasn’t smooth for Pramodji either. There was a lot of pressure on him and he had to give in to the Shiv Sena on a lot of aspects, but he had a larger-than-life personality and could take it,” he added.
“After the party’s defeat in three Hindi heartland states in 2018, it was clear that we needed allies wherever possible. That is when Fadnavis’ role became prominent. He is balanced, understanding, has a good public image and, if he is angry, it never shows on his face.”
According to a senior Shiv Sena functionary and party MP: “To put it very clearly, it is only because of CM Fadnavis that the alliance with the BJP could take shape. All these years, the alliance was possible because Pramod Mahajan had a personal relationship with Balasaheb. Fadnavis, too, has a personal relationship with Uddhav saheb.”
According to the Sena leader, Thackeray senior only trusted Mahajan in the BJP, a party of “overambitious leaders incapable of accommodating anyone beyond themselves”.
“There was some trust deficit after Mahajan’s death. BJP leader Gopinath Munde tried to fill the gap, but there was a void after he died in 2014. Fadnavis seems to be trying to fill that void,” he added, “Let us see how it goes.”
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