From BJP-Congress to BJP-AIMIM: Everyone Is Fair Game for Power in Maharashtra

Such alliances have not surprised people in Maharashtra, as they have been witnessing such games for a while.

In a state where the BJP wishes to expand its influence from Panchayat to Parliament, mass defections/adjustments are thus becoming the norm.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

Right or wrong, the coming together of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with the Congress at Ambernath in Thane district, and with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) at Akot in Akola district, in the municipal councils, is the beginning of a new realignment in Maharashtra, where power is becoming the new ideology.

Let the original ideology go to the dogs in the land of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mahatma Phule, and BR Ambedkar. With all hungry for power, Maharashtra has become a ‘political hamam.’

Though the councillors of the Congress in Ambernath and of the AIMIM in Akot might have come together with those of the BJP, what in effect has happened is the strengthening of the ruling party, for the time being. Strong ideological postures of the three parties apart, what is bringing their workers together is nothing but power. Ideology is the last thing on their mind, and they looked hardly bothered about party discipline. Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac, as someone once said.

Unlikely Alliances, Predictable Outcomes

In order to form the leadership of the Ambernath Municipal Council after last month's civic elections, the BJP sidelined ally Shiv Sena and teamed up with the Congress, its fiercest rival, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), led by Ajit Pawar, under the banner of "Ambernath Vikas Aghadi."

In the Akot Municipal Council in the Vidarbha region's Akola district, the BJP also formed a similar alliance with the AIMIM and a number of other parties.

With the elections to the municipal corporations in the state scheduled for 15 January, this could be a sort of trailer for the picture coming soon, to elect thousands of corporators to lord over the civic bodies that will oversee governance in half of the most urbanised state in the country. This does not speak well of the way democracy is practiced. A total of 2,869 corporators are to be elected across the 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra during the polls

The development mantra is undoubtedly chanted nonstop. This is especially true for everyone who aspires to power and are like fish without water.

Defections, Splits, and the BJP’s Expansion Strategy

In a state where the BJP wishes to expand its influence from Panchayat to Parliament, mass defections/adjustments are thus becoming the norm. Some three years ago, the BJP had engineered splits in undivided Shivsena as well as the NCP to pull down the Uddhav Thackeray ministry and had brought in Eknath Shinde as the Chief Minister.

In fact, loyalty in parties that are either on the periphery or not doing particularly well is said to be skin-deep, just as beauty. Some claim that if you scratch a Congress worker, you'll get a Sanghi. Besides, the tremendous resources available with the BJP, as compared with others, give the saffron party an unfair advantage to subjugate others.

Might is right and appealing, at least to a number of elected representatives, even though no one would say it from the rooftops. 

Where Party Discipline Goes to Die

Despite the BJP under Narendra Modi coming to power at the Centre 11 years ago, the world’s largest party has still not given up its campaign of a Congress Mukt Bharat, which looks atrocious in a parliamentary democracy.

Though Rahul Gandhi has sharpened his attack on RSS-BJP over their divisive ideology, the grassroots workers of the Congress, at places like Ambernath, look unaffected.

The RSS has its headquarters at Nagpur in Maharashtra, but no one has heard them deprecating the politics of splits and defections engineered by the BJP from time to time in the state or at other places.

The Congress has dissolved its Ambarnath city unit and suspended its chief Pradeep Patil and elected councillors, while BJP leader and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis publicly disapproved the tie-up with the Congress and the AIMIM. But this is being seen more as a damage control exercise.

Maharashtra BJP chief Ravindra Chavan, who wants to check the Shiv Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde, issued a show cause notice to the party MLA from Akot, Prakash Bharsakhle, for the alliance with the AIMIM and rival parties.

In Ambarnath, the BJP had formed the Ambarnath Vikas Aghadi to keep the ally Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde out of power. And in Akot, the BJP floated Akot Vikas Manch and allied with the AIMIM, two rival Shiv Sena factions of Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray, two NCP factions led by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar, and Bacchu Kadu's Prahar Janshakti Party.

The state unit officials of the BJP and the Congress are now saying they were unaware of these developments, which is not at all convincing, given the fact that the BJP is in power in the state. The Congress, which dominated the politics in the state over three decades back, is now a laggard and can’t do much to rein in its flock.

Ambernath’s Twist: When the Tables Turn

In the latest twist to the grotesque Ambernath episode, the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, which has the highest 27 members in the Municipal Council, has turned the tables on the BJP by tying up with Ajit Pawar’s NCP and an independent. The new combine’s count stands at 32 in 59-member council.

Sadly, such alliances by rival parties have not surprised people at large, as they have been witnessing such games for long and thus have become used to them. So the Ambernath experiment has not politically shaken Maharashtra. The line that is being heard across the political corridors of the state is, “Picture toh abhi baaki hai”.

In parts of Maharashtra, “Thanyahun aalas ka?” is an expression used in Marathi, which means “Have you come from Thane?” It is actually a taunt to ask, “Have you gone mad?” as Thane is known for its mental health facilities, most notably the historic Thane Mental Hospital in Thane West, which has been serving patients for over 125 years.

So the bizarre developments in Ambernath, part of the Thane district bordering Mumbai, may make an outsider wonder whether a section of the newly elected Municipal Councillors are out of their minds.

The BJP might be speaking of lofty things to raise its political stock, but in reality is using every trick in the trade to marginalise its friends and foes. Ambernath and Akot will be neither the first nor the last. The surprising thing is that the non-BJP parties are slowly learning the game of checkmating it.

(Sunil Gatade is a former Associate Editor of the Press Trust of India. Venkatesh Kesari is an independent journalist. This is an opinion article and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)