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Inexperience may prove to be Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray’s challenge
By diving into an active role as a political executive, the 59-year-old has made a departure from his late father and Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s preferred way of running the government — through remote control.
The month-long, roller-coaster ride over government formation in Maharashtra might just be the precursor to what promises to be a challenging stint for Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as the 19th chief minister of Maharashtra.
By diving into an active role as a political executive, the 59-year-old has made a departure from his late father and Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s preferred way of running the government — through remote control. He is entering the chief minister’s office with no prior electoral or administrative experience in any tier of the government.
And he takes over as head of a three-party coalition government after breaking up with a three-decade-old partner in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and joining hands with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — bitter political foes-turned-allies.
Political observers say the first big challenge Thackeray faces is managing his allies. Politicians from the NCP and Congress dwarf him when it comes to administrative and legislative experience. People like Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal, Ajit Pawar, Ashok Chavan and Balasahb Thorat served as ministers for long years in the Congress-NCP coalition that helmed Maharashtra from 1999 to 2014.
“Thackeray has no administrative experience and he will have to head a coalition government where Congress-NCP can easily dominate him and his party given their experience. Thackerays are also not used to coordinating, mediating, and managing. He will have to do all this and it’s a tough tightrope walk, especially if he has a colleague like say Ajit Pawar,’’ said political analyst Hemant Desai.
Desai added it will also be a tough task for him to handle the state bureaucracy, which may prefer to answer to NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who will likely be seen as the de facto head of the government. How Thackeray manages his relationship with Pawar will be key to how smoothly and how long this government can run.
“It was difficult enough for us (BJP-Shiv Sena) and we shared a common ideology. Here, they have disparate ideologies from Sena celebrating Ayodhya temple [judgment] to Congress wanting reservations for Muslims. The government will run from Silver Oak (Sharad Pawar’s residence) and not Matoshree (Thackeray’s residence),’’ said senior BJP leader Vinod Tawde.
Besides walking the tightrope between his allies, Thackeray faces an uphill task managing state finances and delivering on the promises made to the state’s distressed farmers.
The blanket farm loan waiver promised by these three parties in the run-up to the polls during their several protest marches will drill a hole in the state exchequer that will come at the cost of all other development spending or cause the state’s debt to balloon, making it difficult to service it.
Maharashtra’s debt stands at Rs 4.71 lakh crore and while that is within the fiscal norms (as a ratio of the gross state domestic product) borrowing another Rs 30,000 crore, by a conservative estimate to offer a farm loan waiver may leave the state’s finances in a mess.
Tawde said: “Delivery on the many promises made in their manifestos will be one of the biggest challenges for Thackeray. A blanket loan waiver could mean a burden of Rs 55,000 crore. Then they have promised unemployment allowance...There won’t be funds for any other development projects. What will happen to the ongoing infrastructure projects.’’
NCP leader Jayant Patil said that the government would not compromise on infrastructure agenda for the city because of the promised loan waiver. There could be a rethink on whether the Aarey Milk Colony car shed for the Metro 3 project could be shifted, he said.
“We plan to execute all metro projects. We will take a call depending on the commitments made by the previous government,’’ said Patil.
With the BJP-led central government unlikely to cooperate with the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government, Thackeray can also expect little or no help from the Centre when it comes to funds whether for farmers or as a special case for Mumbai. Former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had sought Rs 5,000 crore for Mumbai and Rs 25,000 crore for backward regions from the 15th Finance Commission.
“Coalition governments are not an anomaly... They are run on basis of a common, worked-out framework, like we have with Congress and NCP. Sena had run the government in 1995 and has been running several city corporations starting with Mumbai. Thackeray has overseen running of multiple cities and the state,’’ said Sena spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi.
