Fadnavis and the rumblings within Maharashtra BJP

Last week saw something that the BJP in Maharashtra had not witnessed in a long time: Two senior party leaders openly expressing their unhappiness with the state of the affairs in the party.

Last week saw something that the BJP in Maharashtra had not witnessed in a long time: Two senior party leaders openly expressing their unhappiness with the state of the affairs in the party. Addressing a rally on the occasion of birth anniversary of party leader late Gopinath Munde, former ministers Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde trained their guns on state leadership of the party.

It remains to be seen if the dissidents in the BJP who have started making noise succeed in clipping Fadnavis’ wings or they themselves become irrelevant in the party. (Hindustan Times)

Khadse, who was sidelined since he had to step down as revenue minister following allegations of wrongdoing, has been criticizing the party leadership in the state for quite sometime. However it was for the first time, Pankaja Munde expressed her anguish over the way the party is being run in Maharashtra. There is no doubt both of them were targeting Devendra Fadnavis who virtually controls the state BJP. Khadse is convinced that his plans to return to the state cabinet were foiled by Fadnavis. An inquiry into the case apparently gave him a clean chit but he could never make it to the cabinet again. In recent assembly elections, Khadse was denied party ticket. His daughter Rohini contested the elections but lost.

According to her close aides, Munde too thinks Fadnavis had a hand in her defeat in her being sidelined in the party and recently her defeat in assembly constituency, Parli in Beed district. Pankaja Munde was defeated by her cousin and rival Dhananjay Munde who contested on NCP ticket. In political circles, it is a known fact that Dhananjay and Fadnavis share cordial relations.

Pankaja always suspected that Dhananjay’s activities against her in Beed had Fadnavis’ blessings though the Fadnavis camp often denied the same. She suspected that she was being cut to size as she never hid her ambitions to become chief minister of the state and hence seen as a future competitor for the top job in the state. She lost the assembly elections and is now staring at a bigger problem in her backyard as her cousin is expected to be inducted as a minister and could become guardian minister of Beed district—calling the shots in the local politics. Realising this she has already upped the ante and has become aggressive. She is likely to make a bid for a strategic position in the party—leader of the opposition in the legislative council if not the state BJP president. The party has maintained silence on her limited rebellion but can it afford to ignore her?

The sidelining of the leaders like Pankaja Munde, Khadse and Chandrashekhar Bawankule may create an impression that the party is not giving importance to all these Other Backward Classes (OBC) leaders. This could be a problem considering the OBC voters form a significant chunk of BJP’s support base in Maharashtra. What Marathas are to the NCP, OBCs are for the BJP. The Fadnavis camp is not keen to give in to Pankaja’s aggressive stance. Instead, they want to put forth new OBC leadership in Maharashtra. Names of Bawankule or Sanjay Kute are being considered for the post of Opposition Leader in Council. Pravin Darekar was appointed on Monday but the party can replace him with an OBC leader after some time.

But will that solve the problem for the party? It is not just a bunch of OBC leaders but several others in the party hierarchy also feel sidelined.

In 2014 when the party in Maharashtra contested two elections, Fadnavis was state BJP president. Following Gopinath Munde’s sudden demise ahead of assembly elections, the party’s top leadership set up a core committee of state leaders to handle the party affairs in Maharashtra. The committee included Eknath Khadse (who was Opposition Leader in Assembly then), Vinod Tawde who was Opposition Leader in Council, Sudhir Mungantiwar and Pankaja Munde and Fadnavis. After the party came to power, two names were added: Chandrakant Patil, a confidant of party chief Amit Shah, and Raosaheb Danve who was appointed state unit chief as Fadnavis became chief minister. Most core committee members feel that the party coming to power meant chief minister gained more significance and the core committee lost its influence. Simultaneously Fadnavis formed his own team including his confidants like Girish Mahajan and Prasad Lad (an import from the NCP) who he trusted more to handle complicated responsibilities. Now, except Patil, almost all core committee members are wary that they would become irrelevant in the party. They are now hoping that the central leadership of the party will pay attention to the situation in the state BJP.

On the other hand, Fadnavis’ influence remains intact. Monday’s decision to appoint his confidant, Darekar, as leader of the opposition in council shows he continues to enjoy the support of party leadership. His aides also point out that the dissidence of some leaders will not matter the moment the BJP manages to form the government—something which they think is possible considering fragile nature of the three-party coalition in the state. As such there is no need to take the dissidents seriously, they add.

It remains to be seen if the dissidents in the BJP who have started making noise succeed in clipping Fadnavis’ wings or they themselves become irrelevant in the party.