While denying that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had any hand in triggering Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra Minister Eknath Shinde’s intra-party rebellion, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil on Tuesday said the unrest within the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi government, and particularly the Shiv Sena, had reached a peak, while alleging that several Sena MLAs had wanted to ally with the BJP, and not the ideologically opposed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, since the MVA’s formation.
Speaking in Mumbai over the political turmoil sparked by Mr. Shinde, Mr. Patil said that the latter’s actions were the Shiv Sena’s internal matter and that the BJP was presently in a “wait and watch” mode.
“BJP has not pre-planned Eknath Shinde’s rebellion. This is the Sena’s internal matter. The unrest within the MVA government has reached a peak. The government was being dominated by the NCP in the last two-and-a-half years,” Mr. Patil, who has been predicting the MVA’s imminent fall since its formation in late 2019, said.
Mr. Patil said it was premature to say how the internal resentment within the Shiv Sena would benefit the BJP or translate into a “regime change”.
He cryptically remarked said that he would not be surprised if the internal resentment that was currently plaguing the Shiv Sena was observed within the Congress and the NCP in the near future as well.
Mr. Patil claimed that even before the formation of the MVA, many MLAs within the Shiv Sena had been resentful of having to ally with their traditional political adversaries — the Congress and the NCP.
“Many Sena legislators who did not want to leave ‘Hindutva’, had wished for a natural alliance with the BJP [in 2019]. They were dissatisfied with the MVA arrangement right form day one. After all, for how long can one run a government [led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray] whose sole basis is that of teaching the BJP a lesson?” Mr. Patil said.
While the BJP and the Shiv Sena had jointly contested the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election, the Sena severed its long-standing alliance with the BJP after bickering over the Chief Minister’s post. It then formed an alliance with the NCP and the Congress to keep the BJP out of power.
Commenting on the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections, where the BJP again trumped the MVA to win five seats, Mr. Patil said that the BJP had never said they had only received the votes of Mr. Shinde and his faction.
“All parties helped us. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the resentment that is plaguing Sena is soon observed within the Congress and the NCP as well,” he said.
The MLC poll results showed that the BJP, which has 106 legislators, now had the support of 133 MLAs. Mr. Shinde and a section of Shiv Sena MLAs went incommunicado soon after the elections, and have been holed up in Surat in Gujarat since Tuesday morning.
While remarking that neither the BJP nor Mr. Shinde had made any proposal till now, Mr. Patil nevertheless said that his party would be happy to accept it, if it were made by Mr. Shinde.
On Mr. Shinde and Sena MLAs choosing BJP-ruled Gujarat while raising the banner of rebellion, Mr. Patil said it was possible that the Sena leader may have felt more “secure” there. He was responding to questions that Gujarat BJP president C.R. Patil had been in close touch with Mr. Shinde during the latter’s Gujarat sojourn.
“Eknath Shinde, who has several friends across party lines, must have felt safe in Surat,” the Maharashtra BJP chief said.
Following Mr. Shinde’s move, Sena MP Sanjay Raut, in firefighting mode, accused the BJP of “abducting” and threatening Shiv Sena MLAs with “physical harm” if they refused to accede to the BJP’s conditions.
However, Mr. Shinde, breaking his silence over Twitter, said that he was a staunch Shiv Sainik of late Sena founder Bal Thackeray.
“Balasaheb has taught us Hindutva …We have never and will never cheat for power when it comes to Balasaheb’s thoughts and Dharmaveer Anand Dighe Saheb’s teachings,” Mr. Shinde tweeted.
The reference to the late Sena leader and late Thane strongman Anand Dighe prompted Union Minister and BJP leader Narayan Rane — once a former Shiv Sainik — to tweet and congratulate Mr. Shinde on his decision.
In a pointed tweet, Mr. Rane said: “Well done, Eknathji. You have taken the right decision at the right time, else they [referring to the Thackeray family] would have done to you what they did to Anand Dighe.”
Dighe, a forceful personality, was the key Sena man responsible for the party’s expansion in the Thane region. His sudden demise in 2001 while undergoing treatment for a leg injury had caused his followers to run riot and burn down a 200-bed hospital in Thane, where he had been undergoing treatment.
When Mr. Rane quit the Shiv Sena and turned into a bitter critic and bete noire of Mr. Uddhav Thackeray, he had alleged that Dighe had been apparently murdered on Bal Thackeray’s orders.
Mr. Shinde is a former protégé of Mr. Dighe, having taken over the Thane region after the latter’s death.
