When Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited New Delhi last week, the buzz in the media and in the political sphere was that he was there to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah to decide what action should be initiated against the ministers in the Maharashtra government who have, of late, been highly controversial.
It was perceived that the BJP, who always seems conscious about the image and optics part of the political activity, has almost reached the conclusion that, ahead of the big civic poll season in Maharashtra, some stern action should be taken against four or five Mahayuti ministers. In other words, ask them to resign from the cabinet.
However, after several meetings in Mumbai between the leaders, it has transpired that the BJP leadership in the state seems hesitant to announce any big action against the so-called “tainted ministers.”
So what changed suddenly in a matter of days, and why does the BJP seem so hesitant and uncertain about what action to take against ministers who faced huge criticism even in the national media after they were caught doing objectionable things on video?
One needs to take a look at the brief history of what happened during the two big elections of the year 2024. The BJP hyped up many achievements ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. The party highlighted how many things around the Hindutva agenda were delivered to the people.
However, the results of the Lok Sabha polls, especially in Maharashtra, were very disappointing for the party, which came down from 23 MPs in the previous polls to just 9 in the state of Maharashtra. This put the party into a thinking mode, and the BJP, on a war footing, sat down to decide the strategy for the 2024 assembly elections.
Many things were decided, including the decision about rolling out the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme, or the DBT, for the voters in the state. This, coupled with the split in the opposition (NCP and Shiv Sena) and a hard-driven Hindutva polarisation agenda branded as “Ek hai toh safe hai,” ensured the desired results in the assembly polls of 2024.
So the BJP-led Mahayuti now has over 230 members in the House out of 288. This clearly means that the BJP-led Mahayuti’s majority in the state assembly can be credited mainly to the DBT scheme rollout and the alliance partners.
The Shiv Sena under Eknath Shinde won 57 seats in the polls, while Ajit Pawar’s NCP won 41 seats. This has made the BJP aware that though they may have the highest-ever number in the state assembly, they do need the alliance partners in the future to ensure stability, especially ahead of the big civic polls in Maharashtra. This is the root cause of why the BJP is now hesitant to take action against the ministers from Ajit Pawar’s or Shinde’s group.
As the pressure started building in the national media over videos of ministers like Sanjay Shirsat and Sanjay Gaikwad, another video shot inside the assembly house of minister Manikrao Kokate surfaced, which created a flutter. But as the BJP was preparing to take stern action this week against these ministers, it was reliably learnt that the alliance partners Shinde and Ajit Pawar put their foot down.
They have demanded that if their men face any action, then the BJP leaders, such as MLA Gopichand Padalkar, whose supporters were allegedly involved in a ruckus inside the lobby of the assembly house, and minister Girish Mahajan, who is involved in another controversy currently, should also face similar and equal action.
An insider said that both Ajit Pawar and Shinde have taken a firm stand now that if Kokate, Gaikwad, and Shirsat are asked to resign, then Padalkar and Mahajan should also be asked to do so.
This sudden aggressive stand taken by the alliance partners has startled the BJP, and CM Fadnavis is now unable to announce swift action against any of the ministers whose controversial videos made national headlines.
The reason the BJP seems a little cautious about all this is because the party remains undecided on the issue of seat-sharing and alliances with partners Shiv Sena and NCP. The party got an unexpected setback in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and now wants to ensure that big civic bodies such as the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation and the Thane and Pune municipal corporations are dominated by them in the upcoming civic polls.
Some BJP leaders were heard saying that they might get into alliances in some civic body polls and go solo in some others. So the saffron party does not want to hurt any of its partners at this crucial time.
On the flip side, if the BJP is seen taking no action against the ministers in question, the conclusion drawn by voters and political activists will be that the party is not strong enough and is buckling under pressure from alliance partners. In many ways, handling the alliance partners and their controversial elements is proving to be a tightrope walk for the BJP!
Rohit Chandavarkar is a senior journalist who has worked for 31 years with various leading newspaper brands and television channels in Mumbai and Pune.
