Shinde-Fadnavis Journey: Tale Of A Friendship Turning Sour

In the year of shared governance between chief minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis, there has been a growing trust deficit among them. There is trouble in their paradise, say many. As the Maharashtra Government completes one year on June 30, the bonhomie between the two seems to be cracking. Sources in the know of things say that Fadnavis is weighed down by Shinde’s growing closeness to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Amit Shah. In recent times, though both have tried to cover up their unease with each other, it is glaringly visible.

It all started with an advertisement. Published on the front pages of leading newspapers circulated across Maharashtra, this advertisement referred to a survey which put the popularity of Shinde much higher than that of Fadnavis. The advertisement also mentioned Shinde as the most popular chief minister with the tagline – Narendra Modi in Delhi and Eknath Shinde in Maharashtra. It is the timing of this advertisement which was interesting and caught coalition partner, BJP, unawares. The BJP and its leaders, including Fadnavis were angry. Aided by the BJP, Shinde had brought about the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi Government led by Uddhav Thackeray, a year ago.

The trigger for this advertisement lies in an incident which took place prior to its publishing. The BJP’s local leaders in the Kalyan Dombivli Lok Sabha constituency – represented by Shinde’s son Dr Shrikant Shinde – demanded this seat for the BJP. Miffed by this digression into a Shiv Sena seat, the CM’s son told the media that he would quit the seat. Some days later the contentious advertisement was published in all newspapers, big and small. Spots were booked on leading news channels and the advertisement was aired. A full day later, the Shinde group swung into action to mollify the BJP. By then, the friendship between the Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena and the BJP had been fractured.

The Kalyan Dombivli Parliamentary seat has been a sore point in the partnership between both these parties, even when the Shiv Sena was united. This seat, a stronghold of the Shiv Sena, was given to the party in the seat sharing formula announced decades ago. However, over the years, the BJP has been demanding this seat as their strength has grown here. In fact, it is the disgruntlement over this seat which had caused a rift between Uddhav Thackeray – the then chief of the united Shiv Sena – and Fadnavis. Later on, the rift widened and touched the central leadership of the BJP too.

The next day after the advertisement was published, Shinde told the media that, the same had been released by an over zealous party worker. An angry Fadnavis had refused to immediately respond to media queries regarding the advertisement. However, he had told the media later that their friendship was not so fragile that it would be affected by an advertisement. A fortnight later the animosity was in full display at a public function attended by both leaders in Palghar, a district to the north of Mumbai.

Though, both the leaders sat next to each other, they did not exchange a single word with each other for over two hours. While Fadnavis looked at his mobile phone and talked to people to his left, Shinde interacted with people to his right. Even when they were called to felicitate people, they did not exchange a word nor look at each other. Even during their departure from the programme, both the leaders left from different sides of the dais, at different points of time. “They did not want to talk to each other. They avoided each other. There was a lot of tension between them,” said a BJP leader, who had attended the programme.

As the months grew into a year of the coalition government, there has been an increasing trust deficit between both these leaders. It started out at the swearing-in of Shinde last year. Moments after Fadnavis had told the media that he would not be a part of the new government, another chair was added to the two that had been lined up for the swearing-in ceremony of Shinde at Raj Bhavan. Union Minister Amit Shah had made the announcement in Delhi that Fadnavis would be the deputy CM. A shocked Fadnavis had complied with the orders of his party boss, but he is yet to reconcile to the fact that he had been over-staged by Shinde.

According to Nishikant Chaughule, a political researcher, there is visible friction between the two leaders. “Fadnavis knows that Shinde is the new blue-eyed boy of both, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. This has made him shaky,” said Chaugule. “There is talk that Shinde will merge his faction with the BJP and will be projected as the Bahujan face of the BJP. While Shinde is a Maratha, the Brahmin roots of Fadnavis is working against him,” said Choughule.

Some months ago, when Amrutha Fadnavis, wife of the deputy chief minister, was caught in a controversy, neither Shinde nor any leader of his faction, came forward to defend Fadnavis and his wife. This too did not go down well with the deputy CM. “Shinde Saheb did not comment because it was their personal matter. If it was anything to do with the government Saheb would have defended. How can Saheb defend when it is a personal issue,” said a source from the Shinde faction.

It is said that seat-sharing talks for the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls may turn out to create another round of tension between the two as both sides think they are stronger than the other.