Eknath Shinde with his MLAs.
Mumbai:
The man who ran Shiv Sena and Maharashtra is now in a fight to save his legacy, dwarf in stature, away from power. The man in charge is now leading the rebellion. And the rebels are finally back home, with the pieces rearranged on the chessboard.
Eknath Shinde’s rebel forces returned to Mumbai from Goa today, ten days after some of them embarked on the ‘Satta Yatra’, which had halted in three BJP-ruled states. It began with a core group campaign in Surat, Gujarat, which then flew to Guwahati, flying across Assam. By the time the party went to Goa, the hand of the BJP, which was hardly invisible, was holding A type of sweet, ready to pop.
With Uddhav Thackeray evicted and Goa properly – dancing on tables and all – they return to Mumbai, though still in a hotel, not home before two crucial days in the assembly.
Shiv Sena held a meeting with BJP MLAs in Mumbai on Saturday.
A two-day special assembly session will begin from tomorrow to elect the speaker and conduct the trust vote. With the BJP in strong numbers, the rebel-led government is likely to have its way. But that is its politics – brazen and successful, yet not free from legal entanglements.
The post of the president has been lying vacant after Congress’ Nana Patole resigned last year to become the party’s state chief. The caretaker was NCP deputy speaker Narhari Jirwal, one of three allies of the Shiv Sena-led government that had just been undefeated. They had already sent notices to some rebels for disqualification under the anti-defection law, but it is now in the Supreme Court. The next hearing is more than a week away.
Who gets the speaker’s chair can decide the fate of those notices.
BJP’s Rahul Narvekar is the candidate of the new ruling coalition. Despite being the single largest party, the BJP has cleverly – you can call it leniency – to give top positions to the rebels, Devendra Fadnavis signs agreement with deputy rather than.
The Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress Maha Vikas Aghadi has fielded Thackeray loyalist Rajan Salvi for Sunday’s election.
Have a vote of confidence on Monday.
Eknath Shinde took 50 of his MLAs, including 39 army rebels, in a chartered plane from Goa on Saturday evening. Security was tightened at the airport as those supporting Uddhav Thackeray staged a protest.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar, a veteran of several seasons and alliances, expects a long battle ahead for which Shiv Sena is. “What I think will be the final decision of the court,” he told reporters in Pune.
Being the party boss, Uddhav Thackeray has removed Mr Shinde from the post of Shiv Sena leader in the assembly for “anti-party activities”. The Shinde camp will challenge this decision as it claims it is now the “real” army.
The two camps have also issued separate whips – technically, binding instructions to legislators – claiming to have authority. Going against such a whip may result in disqualification of the legislator, but that is a more complicated court matter.
Both sides claim the legacy of Bal Thackeray as well as the Hindutva-Maratha ideology.
But those are fights for another day and beyond. For now, in India’s richest state, simple math may be all that matters.