Message from top brass: Get into the role of opposition

As the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government completes 84 days in power next week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will organise a show-of-strength agitation

As the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government completes 84 days in power next week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will organise a show-of-strength agitation across the state against the government’s “anti-people” policies on February 22.

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The agitation may seem a bit premature, but it is to be seen as a signal from the BJP top brass to party leaders and cadre to get into the role of the opposition.

For over two months, the BJP has been hoping that the “unrealistic” coalition government collapses, given the ideological dissonance between the three partners, Shiv Sena, Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

On Sunday as the newly re-appointed state chief Chandrakant Patil officially accepted reins of the state organisation, the message from the top brass of the party was clear – to move on.

As former chief minister and leader of Opposition, Devendra Fadnavis said, “Yes, we have been betrayed, but there is no point crying over it. This is the time to fight.”

Patil said, “We cannot be complacent and just hope that this government will fall by itself.”

One of the reasons for this message is that the BJP has realised that once a government comes to power, it is not easy to bring it down.

To add to this, there is a realisation that both chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who is seen as the main anchor of the MVA, seem to have an understanding, to run the government despite the many differences.

The other reason to move on is that the BJP, as the sole opposition party, has an advantage as well as challenge ahead.

For the first time in two decades, a single party has occupied the entire opposition space in the state and hence can lay claim to the entire anti-government vote share. But it will not reap benefits if the state unit gets mired in internal squabbles and wishfully counts on the breaking up of coalition parties.

“For too long, BJP leaders have been making statements about mid-term polls, collapse of MVA and betrayal by Sena. They should stop that. This could be an opportunity for the BJP going ahead. But for that, they have to play the role of a strong and effective opposition and take up core issues of the people,” said political analyst Surendra Jondhale.

With the local civic polls round the corner in April – Navi Mumbai and Aurangabad corporation elections – the BJP faces it first challenge soon.

“In the past five years, we expanded our party base to emerge as number one in the state vis-a-vis civic corporations, councils, district
councils.

This base will start eroding if we don’t galvanise the party organisation now as we will have to face the three parties together,” said a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former minister.