- Immediate task for Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis will be to steer the economy out of the morass and make good on promises for better civic amenities.
- Dealing with ally Shiv Sena as well as taking decisions on economy of state will require a free hand– which requires minimal interference from the Centre and RSS.
- Sources suggest that BJP central leadership is not averse to striking an alliance with NCP, something Fadnavis is not keen to do.
- Recent instances of unruly behaviour by Shiv Sena is aimed at the Prime Minister, as both BJP and Shiv Sena compete for votes ahead of 2017 Mumbai municipal polls.
Devendra Fadnavis is not the quintessential politician. A post-graduate in Business Management with a diploma in Methods and Techniques of Project Management from DSE (German Foundation for international development), Berlin, he was elected to the Maharashtra legislative assembly for the first time in 1999. The four-time MLA created a record of sorts by becoming the chief minister directly without holding any ministerial portfolio, a quantum jump for a 44-year-old municipal corporator to the hot seat of India’s richest and fastest growing state. That was on October 31, 2014.
He has since promised a lot of things to the people of Maharashtra; inter alia, ensuring sustainable growth of basic infrastructure, redressing farmers’ woes by providing better credit and irrigation facilities, completing the metro network in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, creating jobs for youth, a corruption free administration, uninterrupted power and water supply, improving the lot of slum dwellers and so on.
The Honeymoon Period is Over
As he completes one year in office today, the commoners and the corporates alike look at him with hope; to redeem the state that witnessed long spells of governance deficit. His immediate task will be to steer the economy out of the morass, deliver on civic amenities, especially in Mumbai and protect its plural culture. Though one year is too short a time to dissect an incumbent chief minister’s performance, the honeymoon period is over and the countdown has started now.
Though he has inherited a plethora of problems, both political and administrative, two major challenges before Fadnavis are: boosting the economy and decimating Shiv Sena’s muscle power with minimum damage to his government. Both are not easy tasks either.
Tackling with these challenges means he will need a free hand with little interference from the Centre, the RSS and BJP brass. It remains to be seen whether he will be allowed to function without any such hindrance.
Alliance Woes
Despite having a clean personal image, Fadnavis could not drop two tainted ministers - women and child welfare minister Pankaja Munde and education minister Vinod Tawde - from his cabinet (both facing allegations of corruption). Sources say while Fadnavis prefers to continue with the existing arrangement with Shiv Sena as he personally is averse to have any truck with a “corrupt” NCP leadership, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitely are not averse to a future tie-up with Pawar’s party.
The grapevine is rife with news that Sharad Pawar and the BJP honchos are working on a Plan B in the event of the Sena pulling out of the state government or if they persist, and create more and more embarrassments for the Modi government. It is being argued that by co-opting Pawar, BJP can cock a snook at Sena and at the same time insulate NCP from reviving its old ties with the Congress, thus isolating the Grand Old Party in Maharashtra as well as at the national level.
BJP’s Equation with Pawar
And what will be the bargain offer for the wily Maratha? At 74, and after the paradigm shift in Indian politics, Pawar can no longer entertain his old dream of becoming the Prime Minister of a third front government. Sources suggest that he could be a presidential candidate of the NDA in 2017 when incumbent Pranab Mukherjee demits office.
Both Modi and Jaitley had recently showered praise on Pawar on different occasions. A few days back, Jaitley had stayed with Pawar’s family at Baramati at the latter’s invitation. Jaitely hailed the development work at Baramati and said other cities should emulate the model.
Why is The Shiv Sena So Aggressive?
Sources say the Shiv Sena’s ire is primarily targeted at their bête noire Narendra Modi. The Sena bosses, right from late Bal Thackeray had very cordial ties with the BJP brass including Atal Behari Vajpayee, L. K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh. Thackeray senior had rooted for Sushma as Prime Minister. much to the chagrin of Modi. However, Modi’s ascendance has discomfited the Sena cousins – Uddhav and Raj Thackeray with both the BJP and Sena competing for militant Hindutva space.
The Sena leaders are unlikely to sit idle, at least till the crucial 2017 Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections. The Sena has been controlling the BMC for last 22 years and will do everything to retain its hold over the cash cow by pandering to its parochial constituency.
It is likely that incidents like blackening the face of former Vajpaye aide Sudheendra Kulkarni will repeat itself. Any rabid illiberal act on part of Sena or other parivar fringe elements could trigger large scale unrest, even communal riots, if not handled with care. Such scenarios can hamper the Chief Minister’s governance agenda.
So far, Fadnavis has handled the ungainly situation reasonably well. He managed to neutralise the adverse fallouts of the hate killing of rationalist and CPI leader Govind Pansare, ban on beef and the recent Kulkarni incident. But with BJP-Sena ties hitting rock bottom, tough times have just begun and one wrong decision can cost him dearly.
(The writer is a political commentator)
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