Tightrope walk for Uddhav Thackeray

While the month-long roller-coaster over government formation in Maharashtra might be over, it is just the beginning of a long, challenging time for Shiv Sena chief

While the month-long roller-coaster over government formation in Maharashtra might be over, it is just the beginning of a long, challenging time for Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, as he takes over as the chief minister of Maharashtra on Thursday.

HT Image

Marking a shift from his father, Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s philosophy to run the government through a remote control, Uddhav Thackeray is diving into an active political executive role in Maharashtra as the chief minister. He will be the first CM of the state, who has no prior electoral or administrative experience in any tier of the government. And he takes over the top job of the state as the head of three-legged coalition after breaking up with three-decade-old ally Bharatiya Janata Party.

It’s a given that Thackeray will face some big challenges in his new stint; political observers say the first task among many is managing his new allies, the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). His cabinet colleagues from these parties easily overshadow him vis-a-vis their administrative and legislative experience. A majority of them like Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal, Ajit Pawar, Ashok Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat have been ministers from 1999 to 2014, in the prior Congress-NCP regime.

“Thackeray has no administrative experience and he will have to head a coalition government, where the Congress-NCP can easily dominate him and his party given their experience. Thackerays are also not used to co-ordinating, mediating, and managing. He will have to do all this and it is a tightrope walk, especially with a colleague like say Ajit Pawar,” said political analyst Hemant Desai.

Desai said it will also be a task for him to handle the state bureaucracy, which may prefer to answer to NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who will be seen as the de facto head of this government. How Thackeray manages his relationship with Pawar will be key to how well and how long this government can run is the general opinion. “It was difficult enough for us [BJP-Shiv Sena] and we shared a common ideology. Here, they have disparate ideologies from the Sena celebrating Ayodhya temple to the Congress wanting reservation for Muslims. The government will run from Silver Oak [Sharad Pawar’s residence] and not Matoshree [Thackeray’s residence]. And, that’s why it may run,” 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 state’s distress-ridden farmers. The blanket farm loan waiver promised by these three parties in the run-up to the polls during their several protest marches will bore a hole in the state exchequer that will come at a cost of all other development expenditure or balloon the state’s debt, making it difficult to service it. The state debt stands at ₹4.71 lakh crore and while that is within fiscal norms (as a ratio to the state GSDP) borrowing another ₹30000 crore (conservative estimate) for farm loan waiver may lead to an unwieldy burden and interest payments.

“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 ₹55,000 crore. Then they have promised unemployment allowance, thali for ₹10. There won’t be funds for any other development projects. What will happen to the ongoing infrastructure projects,” Tawde asked.

NCP leader Jayant Patil said their government would not compromise on the infrastructure agenda for the city due to the loan waiver. However, he said there could be a re-think on whether the Aarey car shed for Metro-3 could be shifted. “We plan to execute all Metro projects. We will take a call depending on the commitments made by the previous government,” said Patil.

The city has ongoing infrastructure projects and while a majority of them are being funded through international loan, a portion of these funds have to come from the state kitty. Thackeray, whose party has an urban mandate cannot afford to lose sight of infrastructure projects, given that Sena controlled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation heads into elections in 2022. With the BJP-led Central government unlikely to be co-operative with the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, 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 Fadnavis had sought ₹5000 crore for Mumbai, ₹25,000 crore for backward regions from the 15th Finance Commission. “Coalition governments are not an anomaly, but routine. They are run on the basis of a common framework, like we have with the Congress and NCP. The Sena has run the state in 1995 and has been running corporations. Thackeray has overseen running of multiple cities as well as the state,” said Sena spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi.