Has the action by central agencies brought Shiv Sena & NCP closer?

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ROHIT CHANDAVARKAR

Pune, 16th October 2021: The situation in Maharashtra now seems very similar to what was seen happening in West Bengal in the months before assembly elections there. It is an obvious political war like situation between the centre and state. The state political leadership seems to be in no mood to relent and the strange, unexpected outcome of the actions by the central investigative agencies being carried out in the state is that it has brought the NCP and Shiv Sena closer to each other. Sena and NCP seem to suddenly have a better level of bonding between them and new bonhomie!

The auspicious day of Dasshera also known as Vijayadashami has not only religious significance in Maharashtra but also has very big political relevance in the state Maharashtra. It is a big day because Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS holds its biggest annual rally in Nagpur on this day, Shiv Sena which now is the ruling party in Maharashtra holds its annual party convention in Mumbai on this day and many other parties also use the day to address their activists and followers through many events that are held this day.

This year as always all eyes and years were on who says what at the rallies. The RSS held its rally and its chief Mohan Bhagwat spoke in detail about certain economic and political issues that the country faces.

But what created a flutter among lakhs of citizens and thousands of political party activists of all parties all over Maharashtra, was Chief Minister & Shiv Sena party Chief Uddhav Thackeray’s speech at the Vijayadashmi rally in Mumbai. Thackeray used literally every second of his 50 minute speech to lash out against his party’s former alliance partner turned foe BJP and seemed to be focussed solely only on that subject. This seemed to enthuse the audience of ardent Shiv Sena leaders and activists to shout slogans very aggressively as the party convention almost looked like it was Thackeray’s battle call for the upcoming municipal polls in Maharashtra. Many senior Sena leaders being issued notices by investigative agencies of central government seemed to have angered Uddhav very much and he was repeatedly heard saying his party “would not relent” to what he called “pressure tactics”.

Since the past few weeks or months there were several instances where Thackeray was heard making suggestive comments from the stage at public events, which gave indications of whether he was open to returning to some kind of a deal with the BJP, however Friday’s speech at the party convention made it very obvious that at least till the municipal polls scheduled to happen around February 2022, there will be no change in the current political alliances in Maharashtra and Shiv Sena will continue to hold their anti-BJP stance.

Another factor that has been under public glare is the action by certain central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Income Tax department (IT) and even the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the state of Maharashtra. While the NCB was in news for their action against some high profile individuals associated with Bollywood, agencies such as ED and IT were seen focussing mainly on political personalities and that too mainly persons from Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which is Shiv Sena’s main coalition partner in the Maharashtra government. In the past week IT department’s search and seizure operations were seen happening even at companies associated with Maharashtra deputy CM and NCP leader Ajit Pawar’s and his sisters. The Pawars’ are obviously very furious about these actions. NCP Chief Sharad Pawar, who is seen as the mentor of the current coalition in Maharashtra and has stayed away from the media glare most of the time during the COVID period, came out aggressively to hold multiple press conferences in a period of seven days to attack the central government and even term it politics of vendetta. To add to this one minister belonging to the NCP Nawab Malik, has already locked horns over the way the drug control agency has been carrying out raids and investigations in Mumbai. Nawab has made allegations that this is being done by the BJP led central government to defame Mumbai and Bollywood.

On Saturday, Sharad Pawar held a media conference in Pune to support Nawab and levelled several allegations against the NCB. Earlier at a public meeting in Sholapur, Pawar looked very angry and aggressive over his family and relatives being acted against by the IT department. Many within the ruling coalition say this is what prompted his to call a Maharashtra Bandh last Monday in the state.

 The situation in Maharashtra now seems very similar to what was seen happening in West Bengal in the months before assembly elections there. It is a political war between the centre and state. The state political leadership seems to be in no mood to relent and the strange, unexpected outcome of the actions being carried out by central agencies,  is that it has brought the NCP and Shiv Sena closer to each other. Action by the central investigative agencies against political leaders in Maharashtra seems to be almost acting like glue for these parties! Sena and NCP seem to suddenly have a better level of bonding between them.

The big question is whether this will translate into a seat sharing agreement in some of the crucially big municipalities in the state which go to polls early next year. An agreement over seat-sharing is the key for victory in the municipal corporation polls of Mumbai, Thane, Pune and other big cities which political activists are calling a mini-assembly fight. Whether a seat sharing deal happens remains to be seen but for now it’s very clear that the coalition partners within the Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra are enjoying a new bonhomie!