Mumbai: Both Maharashtra’s rival fronts are daring each other to declare a chief ministerial face for next month’s assembly polls—and both are reluctant to declare their own.
There are six major parties in the fray this time—arrayed into two opposing alliances often described as unnatural—bursting at the seams with plausible candidates, including the sitting chief minister and former CMs. All the parties have floated their preferred names. And with so many contenders jockeying for power, neither alliance is ready to take the plunge.
Within the ruling Mahayuti—consisting of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)—the names doing the rounds include Shinde, the sitting CM, and his two deputies: Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP, a former CM himself, and Ajit Pawar, who has never made any secret of his aspirations for the top post.
It’s further complicated by the difficult dynamics among the allies. While Shinde’s supporters express confidence that he’ll emerge as chief minister once again, an NCP leader decried the Sena leader’s “baggage” and said it was better to contest without a CM face.
On the other flank, the Mahayuti’s setback in the Lok Sabha elections—with the BJP’s tally in particular nosediving to nine seats from 23—saw a Marathi weekly linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological fountainhead, blame the alliance with the NCP, a traditional rival, for the poor performance.
The BJP state president, Chandrashekhar Bawankule, also said Wednesday that Shinde should be ready to make “sacrifices”, just as the BJP has done to keep the alliance intact. This comes after Union Home Minister Amit Shah reportedly said the BJP had sacrificed the CM’s post while forming the alliance.
On the other hand, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)—which includes the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Congress—is now grappling with a changed balance of power among its constituents. While Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar were the faces it banked on during the Lok Sabha elections, winning the greatest number of seats has made the Congress fancy its chances.
Now, there’s a host of Congressmen in the ring with Thackeray—who was CM for two-and-a-half years—and names from the NCP (SP) including state president Jayant Patil and MP Supriya Sule. Arguing against declaring a CM face, Congress leaders are also citing the “norm” that the chief minister comes from the ally that wins the greatest number of seats.
At a joint MVA press conference Sunday, Thackeray said: “Let the Mahayuti first declare its CM candidate. Is the BJP ready to go to the polls with the faces of thieves and traitors? Let them first declare their face; we have multiple faces…This election is going to be Maha Vikas Aghadi vs Mahayuti. First let them say it; once they do, we will declare our face.” Sharad Pawar and Congress state president Nana Patole expressed their agreement.
To this challenge, Fadnavis—without mentioning Shinde’s name—said at a Mahayuti press conference Wednesday: “There is a sitting chief minister, right? I challenge Pawar saheb to declare their candidate for CM.” Shinde later referred to this and said the Mahayuti’s work would speak for itself.
Maharashtra, which has 288 assembly seats, will go to the polls on 20 November and the votes will be counted on 23 November.
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‘We already have a CM’
The Mahayuti is heading to the polls with a sitting chief minister, and Shiv Sena leaders see no reason Shinde shouldn’t stay in his post. They’re hoping that the many government schemes launched with the ‘CM’ branding since he took office will help his chances with the voters.
“We already have a CM and the BJP has also made it clear that these elections will be fought under his leadership…We are confident that the Mahayuti will win and Shinde will be made CM again,” a Shiv Sena functionary told ThePrint.
However, a senior functionary of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP said, “Eknath Shinde carries a lot of baggage and tags with him. And why should we be associated with him? If we declare him as the CM face, every negative policy decision will be transferred to us. So, to avoid that, it’s best not to declare the CM face.”
He added that for every party and its workers, their leader is the CM face. “For us, Dada (Ajit Pawar) is our face, so we don’t feel we have issues. Our voters and candidates will vote and seek votes in Dada’s name, so it doesn’t matter if we have a CM face or not. I don’t think there will be any confusion.”
Thackeray’s push for a CM face
The fissures over the CM face are reminiscent of the tussle in 2019, when the undivided Shiv Sena fought the elections alongside the BJP but the 25-year-old alliance fell apart over the chief minister’s post. The Sena said the BJP had promised to share the CM’s post with it on an equal basis, but then reneged on the agreement.
Thackeray subsequently joined hands with the Congress and the undivided NCP to form an MVA government with himself as CM. That’s the arrangement the Shiv Sena (UBT) wants to revive now.
Within the MVA, it’s the Shiv Sena (UBT) that has been asking for the alliance to declare a CM face. Time and again, Thackeray has been asking MVA leaders to come up with a candidate—whether himself or someone else from one of the allied parties—before the elections.
At his party’s Dussehra rally held at Shivaji Park in Mumbai Saturday, Thackeray asserted himself and wrapped up his speech by sharing a video of him being sworn in as Maharashtra CM in 2019.
His aide and Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Raut, has been declaring that Thackeray should lead the state if the MVA comes to power. He has argued that Thackeray had governed the state earlier and was an acceptable face.
“This back-and-forth over the CM face will continue in the Mahayuti and the MVA. This is politics. But everyone in Maharashtra and the country knows whose face people will look at and vote, and for that we don’t need to make any announcement,” Raut said to the media Thursday.
Then, there’s the NCP (SP). Although party patriarch Sharad Pawar had previously said that the CM face would be declared after the elections, on Wednesday, he hinted that he was pushing for Jayant Patil—the party’s Maharashtra president—to lead the state.
Banners projecting Patil as future CM were in evidence at a rally in his constituency, Islampur, Wednesday. Speaking at the rally, Pawar said, “It is your wish, my wish and the whole of Maharashtra’s wish that Jayant Patil should take the responsibility of rebuilding the state.”
However, Patil downplayed this Thursday, telling reporters: “Within the MVA, there are internal discussions over the CM’s post. We need not declare it yet. And as far as Pawar’s statement is concerned, as a party president, my primary responsibility lies in getting the greatest number of seats.”
Congress throws its hat into ring
The Lok Sabha election results—which saw the Congress go to 13 seats in the state from just one—have emboldened the latter to push for its own candidate.
From state party president Nana Patole to Leader of the Opposition Vijay Waddettiwar, Congress Legislature Party leader Balasaheb Thorat and ex-CM Prithviraj Chavan, there’s a long list of aspirants from the Congress. In the Vidarbha region, banners projecting Patole as CM have become a common sight, and Congress workers and leaders have been voicing this sentiment.
Congress leaders argue against declaring anyone as the MVA’s chief ministerial candidate now, while pushing for an understanding that the party that wins the greatest number of seats should get the post.
“Declaring a CM face will mean the election will be just that person versus Eknath Shinde or the Mahayuti. Other issues, like women’s safety, law and order and corruption will all be brushed under the carpet and the focus will just be on one person. Besides, normally, whichever party in an alliance gets the highest number of seats claims the CM post. This has been the norm,” said a senior leader.
Another leader said: “Every worker would feel their leader should become the CM. This is natural. So, going with one face will upset and disturb the workers on ground. Our main target is to come to power. The Mahayuti needs to go,” said a leader.
However, the unexpected setback in the Haryana assembly elections has taken some of the wind out of the Congress’s sails, and its allies have started flexing their muscles over seat sharing and the CM’s post again, with the Sena (UBT) reiterating its demand that the alliance declare a candidate.
“What the BJP did to us in 2019, the Congress is doing now. But still, we are in a slightly better position because both parties (the Congress and the Sena (UBT)) know they won’t be able to defeat the BJP all by themselves. We need each other,” a senior Sena (UBT) functionary told ThePrint.
The MVA is still not going ahead with a CM face, according to multiple sources in the alliance.
(Edited by Rohan Manoj)
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