Dussehra saw an uncharacteristically combative Uddhav Thackeray launching a blistering attack on the BJP-led regime at the Centre, daring it to topple his government in Maharashtra. “Since the day I became CM, I have been hearing different dates as to when my government will fall. It hasn’t happened so far. If you have the courage, then go ahead and do it,” challenged Thackeray, who will complete one year as chief minister, heading the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, formed in alliance with the NCP and the Congress.
It was not an impulsive outburst by the beleaguered chief minister, but a rather well thought-out reprisal. He said those words at the Shiv Sena’s traditional Dussehra Melava at Mumbai’s iconic Shivaji Park. It was a message not just to the BJP, the opposition party in Maharashtra, but also to thousands of Shiv Sainiks. And it meant he wouldn’t take the attack lying down.
Usually known to be mild-mannered, Thackeray’s no-holds-barred offensive came a year after being constantly under siege by the BJP over some issue or the other—from his government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of preparedness in dealing with the migrant crisis and investigations into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide case, to governor B.S. Koshyari questioning his Hindutva credentials when he refused to open temples as a preventive measure. Then there are offshoots of these issues that have added to the flashpoints between the Maharashtra government and the Centre—the row between actor Kangana Ranaut and the CM, the alleged TRP scam in which Republic TV is an accused and, finally, the withdrawal of ‘general consent’ by the state government to CBI investigations.
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The fault lines between the Maharashtra government and the BJP are not likely to disappear anytime soon. Kumar Ketkar, a Rajya Sabha member from the Congress, says the ongoing conflict between the two stems from the fact that the BJP has not reconciled to losing Maharashtra to its erstwhile ally Shiv Sena. “The BJP had hyped its definitive position so much and it is still not clear why it is not in power. Also,
Shiv Sena has been its ally since 1980, and a close one since 1985. They have had a smooth alliance and have been on the same page on most issues, including Ayodhya. It is incomprehensible to the BJP, both intellectually and politically, why the divorce happened,” explains Ketkar, a former journalist.
The row between Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut and the Maharashtra CM, an offshoot of the Sushant Singh case, saw her property being demolished as illegal.
He believes the fight is more a personal one for the BJP in Maharashtra. “For the BJP, its main enemy may be Congress, or more specifically the Nehru family, but in Maharashtra, Thackeray has emerged as its enemy number one. Even Shiv Sena comes second.
They want to create an inimical situation between Thackeray and the Shiv Sena by targeting him personally,” he adds. The BJP’s attacks are reserved for the Thackerays as the leaders of other parties in the alliance are spared.
According to Ketkar, a large number of Shiv Sena MPs and MLAs were elected on a joint ticket with the BJP, and fed on a diet of anti-Congressism. “Many of them are doubtful if they can be elected on a Sena ticket the next time around. The BJP knows that, and is exploiting it psychologically and politically,” he says.
That’s the reason the BJP is likely to continue the personal attacks unabated, and try and chip away at the credibility of Sena leaders. BJP leader Narayan Rane again insisted on October 26 that Rajput was murdered and alleged the involvement of Aditya Thackeray, the CM’s son. Ketkar also mentions the case of 80,000 fake accounts as an example of BJP’s “cheap tactics”. Allegedly created to target Aditya and the chief minister, the accounts are being investigated by the Mumbai police. He says the BJP is clearly rattled, more so with senior party leader Eknath Khadse joining the NCP, and predicts that the party will continue with its tactics until it believes that the MVA government will fall due to its internal contradictions.
NCP leader Nawab Malik says the BJP is doing all it can to destabilise the MVA government. With Khadse leaving, he believes the party is scared others may walk out too. “There are sitting BJP MLAs who are willing to talk. Our government is not going anywhere,” he says, adding that the Congress will not try to destabilise the government. “In fact, the more the BJP tries to attack the government, the closer we become.”
Maharashtra BJP’s chief spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, however, is convinced that the MVA will fall apart before the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2022 as the Congress will walk out. “The Congress will have to leave the alliance if it wants to have a fighting chance in UP. It cannot go to UP as an ally of the Shiv Sena. It will be a compulsion for the Congress then to leave the MVA,” he says.
Vehemently denying that the BJP is making any effort to topple the MVA government, Bhandari adds that there is no reason to do it as his party is not seeking any opportunity to form the government at this stage. According to him, it would take at least 30-35 people leaving the MVA, or one party pulling out of the alliance, for the government to fall. “We are not willing to form the government in alliance with anyone. We cannot form a government either with the Congress or with the NCP,” he says. The BJP wants to perform its role as a responsible opposition party. In fact, the spokesperson claims, the Maharashtra government is running only because of their role as an active opposition.
Critical of Thackeray’s administrative and crisis-management skills, he says it is the BJP that handled the coronavirus situation in the state. “Our workers went all over the state to help the people as a responsible opposition. If we hadn’t done it, the number of COVID-19 casualties in the state would have been 300 times more,” he claims.
The BJP explains Thackeray’s new-found belligerence as a desperate measure since he has been cornered. “He is in a tricky situation. The fact that his government has withdrawn general consent from the CBI investigating cases in the state shows that he is running scared. He is worried that skeletons will tumble from his family cupboard,” says Bhandari. He also dismisses the CM’s allegations that the Centre messed up GST implementation. “Yes, Rs 38,000 crore is due to Maharashtra, but it is the same for all states. Even BJP-run states like Madhya Pradesh have not got the GST dues. Where is the money? The Centre has asked all states to take loans,” he says.
However, Thackeray seems to be in no mood to back off and the confrontationist streak is not likely to dull anytime soon. “He doesn’t want his calm attitude to be construed as a weakness,” says a Shiv Sena leader. “The BJP is misusing all its powers of ruling at the Centre. Soon after the MVA came to power, the Centre transferred the Bhima-Koregaon case to the NIA without taking the consent of the Maharashtra government. Since then they have been unnecessarily needling us. Dragging the CM’s family into the messy Sushant Singh case was bad enough and then using the governor to make that ‘secular’ jibe on the CM was the last straw.”
According to this Sena leader, Thackeray won’t retreat and will give it back as good as he gets. “He is going to act on what he said in his Dussehra speech—one should not attack, but one shouldn’t keep quiet if attacked from behind,” he says, adding that all the allies are standing firmly with Thackeray.
Ketkar says the Dussehra outing has been a turning point for the CM, where he has questioned the very basis of Shiv Sena coming together with the BJP. “He says his Hindutva is not about opening temples, but about nationalism. He also questions the traditions that the BJP swears by—that of cow dung and cow urine. Uddhav’s words are not a throwback to his father Balasaheb Thackeray, but to his grandfather Prabodhankar Thackeray, who was an iconoclast, and against rituals and Brahminism,” Ketkar adds.
It does seem that Uddhav, the soft-spoken and unlikely Thackeray, is forging his own path. The question is whether he will manage to overcome the challenges posed by the BJP.
