Maharashtra Political Debacle

Key Takeaways

• The current government of Maharashtra was overthrown and a new Government has been established.
• The overthrown Government was the Maha Vikas Agadhi, an alliance, primarily between Shiv Sena, NPC, and, INC.
• The overthrown CM was Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray.
• The new CM is Shiv Sena Leader Ekanath Shinde, and the new Deputy CM is BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.
• The current political crisis is closely knit with the political crisis of 2019.

Introduction

Strong gusts of both, feat and failure could be felt moving through Maharashtra’s political atmosphere as Uddhav Thackrey resigned from the post of CM and Ekanath Shinde was sworn in, all in the span of a blink. This seemingly simple offensive against Thackeray’s, relatively new MVA government, is quite layered and laced with complexity. However shocking; political turmoil isn’t novel to Maharashtra. One cansee history repeating itself. This article will further unravel and dissect various elements involved.

Background

Vol1: 2019 Political Crisis

The current political clashes in Maharashtra, find their roots in the 2019 legislative assembly elections. It is thus imperative to understand the people and policies that manipulated the 2019 state elections.

On October 21, when the election results were released, the then incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance was lauded as the clear winner of state elections, because the alliance won 161 seats, crossing the requisite majority of 145. The Opposition Indian National Congress- Nationalist Congress Party ( INC-NCP) Alliance with 106 seats could not reach the majority mark and INC won 44 and 54 seats, respectively.

However, the victory was short-lived. Shiv Sena declined to support Bharatiya Janata Party in the formation of the government, claiming that BJP went back on its promise of an “equal power distribution model”. According to Shiv Sena, led by Uddhav Thackeray, BJP promised Shiv Sena the post of CM for 2.5 years, out of the tenured 5. BJP however, declined to make such claims and thus, broke ties with Shiv Sena, one of BJPs oldest allies, both bound by a competitive adherence to Hindutva.

Vol2: After Math

After BJP and Shiv Sena’s alliance fell apart, there was no political party with a clear majority of 145 sears, that could claim the power of the Maharashtra State Assembly. Thus, the state was officially in political crisis. Accordingly, the president’s rule (governed under Article 356, which implies the suspension of state government and establishes the [temporary] direct union government rule) was imposed on the state.

The governor of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari, a BJP appointee, invited the BJP to lead the state government. BJP, led by former CM Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as Chief Minister, with a little help from a small sect of the NCP, then led by AjitPawar. The President’s rule was thus revoked. This victory too, however, was short-lived because BJP was unable to attain the required majority. Pawar and Fadnavis thus resigned a mere three days after being instated.

The invitation to claim the power of the Maharashtra assembly was further passed to the second-largest party, Shiv Sena. The Governor invited the NCP too, to form a government. Both failed to gain the majority and thus, President’s rules were imposed again.

Vol3: Formation of the Maharashtra Government.

After relentless discussions and “parading”, The NCP, INC, andagreed to form a new alliance called Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). This alliance also included small factions of various other parties, like the Samajwadi Party and Peasants and Workers Party of India, who didn’t own much public stake in Maharashtra. This new alliance consensually named Uddhav Thackeray the CM of Maharashtra and he was sworn in as the 19th Chief Minister of Maharashtra on 28 November 2019.

This new alliance overthrew the mandate and was viewed as opportunistic and impractical, devoid of any solid political convictions, one might call it “unnatural” (a term which would become relevant further in the article) Their communal ideology, is theoretically unsustainable because their individual party beliefs are highly incompatible. This is because Shiv Sena, a far-right-winged political party propounds Conservatism, Hindutva and Hindu Nationalism, and right-winged populism. NCP on the other hand is a party belonging to the central wing, promoting Liberalism and Gandhism. INC, the third component of this alliance is a left-winged party that prides itself on its principles of welfare, bordering on pure liberalism. For the layman, Liberalism and Conservatism are on two extreme ends of the same spectrum. Thus, in a Venn diagram of their principles and dogma, these three parties have little to negligible foundational similarities.

However, even with the odds stacked against him, eventually, Udhav Thackeray managed to bring the state back to its previous level of equilibrium.

Contemporary

The 2022 Maharashtra Political crisis also involves the same players as 2019. The current crisis is thus, more or less a sequel to the previous one. The first milestone for the 2022 crisis was marked on June 21, 2022, when Ekanath Shinde, a senior Shiv Sena leader along with various other MLAs (approximately 46) of the ruling MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) first relocated to Surat, Gujarat then Guwahati, Assam, both governed by BJP, giving rise to presumptions of a new coalition or alliance. This re-location resulted in tensions within the coalition government. An evident division between Shiv Sena and the MVA could be witnessed, preceding the power struggle.

With rumors already emerging, about the likelihood of Maharashtra’s government being overthrown, Thackeray finally addressed the public via a Facebook live stream and expressed his will to step down of his own volition, if the rebel MLAs, including Shinde, come forward and tell him to do so, to his face. While Thackeray’s words seemed harmless, respectful, and genuine enough, his tone, combined with the consternated atmosphere, came off as a threat.

Soon after Thackrey addressed the public, Eknath Shinde, heading the faction of dissidents, on Wednesday said the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra was an “unnatural alliance”. It is important to go beyond the semantics and understand his intended meaning behind “unnatural alliance” because Shinde’s apprehension towards the coming together of these differing parties is the prime reason for this political crisis. As mentioned above, his belief that the alliance was unnatural, and emphasis on the same refers to the irreconcilable political ideologies of the alliance’s components.

He further tweeted "It is necessary to quit the unnatural alliance for the sake of Shiv Sainiks and the Shiv Sena. It is important to decide on the interest of the state”. His tweets were in Marathi with #Hindutvaforever, mentioning and emphasizing the core political ideology of Shiv Sena. Shinde expressed his dismay towards the undercutting of “Shiv Saininks” who are getting weakened in this alliance because they feel the need to compromise their beliefs.

During this tussle, Thackeray moved out of his official residence to his residence in Matoshree. He continued to engage in conversation, which was being reported as “positive”.

Uddhav Thackeray was supported by his son Aaditya Thackeray, senior leader Sanjay Raut and NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Sanjay Raut kept assuring citizens that Thackeray will not be resigning from his chief ministerial position. However, the embattled Thackeray ended up resigning from his Chief Ministerial post on June 30th, 2022, merely minutes after the Supreme Court took cognizance of the crisis and announced a floor test (A floor test is a motion through which the government seeks to know whether it still enjoys the confidence of the legislature).

Soon after Shiv Sena leader Ekanath Shinde and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra respectively. This thus, possibly re-instates the broken ties between Shiv-Sena and BJP.

Conclusion

The political turmoil in Maharashtra is nothing short of a drama series, riddled with overtones of betrayal and disappointment The future of Shiv-Sena as a united faction is ambiguous and Thackeray’s role in the party also stays unclear. However, as things settle down discussions and debates regarding the same is sure to follow.