Trust Vote: Cakewalk For Shinde And The BJP
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-07-04 08:12:13
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
The 'rebel' Shiv Sena (although it is time now to call it the real Shiv Sena on the
strength of the numbers it has) and BJP alliance government in Maharashtra won
the trust vote with ease getting 164 votes. Only 99 MLAs voted against it. This
proves that despite the tall talk from the Uddhav Thackeray camp of MLAs being
kidnapped or being otherwise lured away and the confidence that they would vote
for Thackeray once they are back in Mumbai, the split in the Sena is ideological
and complete. In fact, it has been reported that a couple of MLAs who had stuck
to the Uddhav Thackeray group during the crisis have crossed over on Sunday.
Apart from this, 2 Samajwadi Party and one AIMIM MLA chose to abstain and
several Congress and NCP MLAs chose not to attend the session, further
decreasing the opposition numbers and exposing the fault lines.
The split
in the party, with a majority of the MLAs siding with Eknath Shinde, is not
entirely due to the fact that the MLAs were worried about Central agencies
going after them. Although money might have played a major role is making the
MLAs switch sides, the fact remains that apart from those based in Mumbai, most
Shiv Sena MLAs from the rest of Maharashtra were feeling ignored and resented
the fact that the party was allowing Sharad Pawar and the NCP to gain an upper
hand. Of course Devendra Fadnavis had cultivated Shinde for long, but being Shiv Sainiks and having been brought up on the staple of Hindutva,
thosewho switched sides also resented the fact that Uddhav Thackeray had compromised with the
party's core ideology just to become the chief minister. They wanted the party
to return to the BJP which was something not acceptable to Uddhav Thackeray.
Hence, they broke away and stayed firm despite threats.
With the
government now secure, at least for the next six months or until the Supreme
Court an adverse order against what has happened in the assembly, the real
fight will now be to gain control of the vast infrastructure of the Shiv Sena.
Both groups have started acting against each other. Separate whips were issued
for the trust vote by both camps. There would be technical and legal battles
for the same. On another front, the Uddhav Thackeray group has locked the Shiv
Sena office in the assembly and has sought an affidavit of loyalty from all
office bearers of the party. But the real test will lie when the elections for
the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest civic body in India
(which is now under the control of the Uddhav Thackeray group) are held
sometime in or after September. The Eknath Shinde group does not command the
loyalty of corporators or Shiv Sainiks in Mumbai. But with the administration
now in their hand, the situation can change fast. The alliance will of course
make a serious bid to dislodge the Uddhav Thackeray group from the BMC.
