Should BJP’s Maratha influx upset Eknath Shinde, Ajit Pawar?

The BJP’s shrewd moves to bring stalwart Maratha leader Ashok Chavan are giving sleepless nights to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who heads the breakaway faction of the Shiv Sena, and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who heads the breakaway faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Both leaders would have realised the strategy of the ‘Mahashakti’, a euphemism used by Shinde for the BJP, to cut them to size sooner rather than later.

Chavan might be a controversial former Chief Minister, but he is also known to have a base in parts of Marathwada and has supporters in different regions of the state. Being the son of late S B Chavan, who stood up to the politics of Congress veterans like Vasantdada Patil from Western Maharashtra, has given him a stature which grew after he became Chief Minister about 15 years back.

The BJP, which has not yet been able to make an inroad into the Marathwada has now got a tall leader in the region. The importance of Chavan is also in the fact that he was one of the strategists of the Congress in the state and knows its operations in and out.

The BJP understands the worth of Maratha leaders like Ashok Chavan who were targeted by it till the other day. The controversy over the Adarsh scam made Ashok Chavan a spent force in state politics, especially with relentless pressure against him.

Ashok Chavan was isolated in the Congress due to the indifference of the party high command and the politics of one-upmanship by state party chief Nana Patole. Given this, Ashok Chavan has nothing political to lose in switching over to the BJP. On the contrary, he stands to gain, including a Rajya Sabha seat.

The BJP, by welcoming many turncoat politicians, has showed that it is a master in the politics of social engineering. The BJP leadership has a keen understanding of this and makes inroads into new social groups dominated by its political rivals. Its growth in these groups will pick up pace and will soon the BJP becomes a dominant force. Its meteoric rise in Indian politics over the past few decades is not an accident, nor is its prime position in Maharashtra.

The BJP has acquired Maratha leaders from other political parties with a specific purpose. Former Chief Minister Narayan Rane, who was a force to reckon with while he was in the Shiv Sena, moved to the BJP from the Congress at a time when his chips were down after successive defeats in the assembly polls. He was also facing several cases. The job assigned to Rane and his two sons is to take on the Shiv Sena in their own manner, especially in the Konkan region.

The choice of Milind Deora and Praful Patel as the Rajya Sabha candidates by the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and the NCP (Ajit Pawar) factions respectively could brew trouble in these factions as lateral entries into political parties often do. This will help the BJP in Maharashtra in the long run. It is no secret that Patel has had a good rapport with top BJP leadership in Delhi for a long time. Deora and Patel were chosen by the BJP’s allies in the government even though there were several hopefuls in their ranks aspiring to go to the Upper House. It included Sunil Tatkare, heading the Maharashtra NCP, who is a Lok Sabha member from Alibag. His daughter Aditi is a member of the state council of ministers.

Former Minister Harshvardhan Patil, who belongs to Indapur bordering Baramati which is NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s home turf, was brought in by the BJP from Congress to loosen Sharad Pawar’s hold there. He has been now made the head of the National Sugar Cooperatives Federation; this is significant because Sharad Pawar is a tall leader among the sugarcane farmers in western Maharashtra.

Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who was the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly when Devendra Fadnavis was Chief Minister, was brought from the Congress to make inroads in the sugar-rich western Maharashtra. Patil’s grandfather pioneered the first sugar cooperative in India in 1945.

The BJP is believed to be behind NCP leader and senior Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who is emerging as a key voice among the OBCs amid the Maratha reservation stir.

The BJP’s actions in Maharashtra should get Shinde and Ajit Pawar worried. The BJP is growing by acquiring leaders and in the process is likely to soon push its allies to the margins. The allies must realise that they are not indispensable.

(Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari are senior journalists.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.