Political sources say Modi is 'keen' on getting the NCP (SP) over to the Mahayuti to counter Eknath Shinde's 'demands' and to act as a cushion against his present allies, Nitish Kumar and N Chandrababu Naidu, 'in case their relationship became untenable'.
With the Mahayuti, Maharashtra's ruling coalition, in clover after sweeping the 2024 assembly polls, every party in the state faces its next major challenge: The elections to 27 municipal corporations, 232 municipal councils, and 125 nagar panchayats, all governed by local Acts.
The corporations include the coveted and cash-rich BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation, which has been controlled by the undivided Shiv Sena for years.
The local body elections have been indefinitely deferred for the past four years.
The matter is currently before the Supreme Court, following a plea seeking reservation for the Other Backward Classes.
Political insiders suggest that the elections will be postponed until the end of the year.
"It's not possible to conduct such a huge exercise in the blistering heat that has arrived before time in our state. It's impossible to have them in the monsoon. Then come the festivals. So this is likely to drag," a source in the Bharatiya Janata Party's Maharashtra unit said.
Leading the Mahayuti is the BJP, which won 132 of the 288 assembly seats.
The coalition includes the Shiv Sena, led by Eknath Shinde's breakaway faction, and the Nationalist Congress Party, which split from its original namesake after Ajit Pawar, the nephew of NCP founder Sharad Pawar, rebelled against his uncle and walked away with a chunk of the legislators to fortify a BJP-SS government in 2022.
The Opposition league, which calls itself the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, consists of the Shiv Sena (reborn as the SS-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) or NCP (SP), and the Congress.
The Mahayuti suffered an unexpected setback in the parliamentary polls, securing just 17 of the 48 seats, while the MVA validated its charge against the BJP for using 'dishonourable' means to dislodge the preceding government headed by Uddhav Thackeray.
The MVA won 32 seats, including one by the Samajwadi Party, but it failed to build on these gains and was so badly routed in the ensuing assembly polls that none of its constituents had enough bench strength to qualify for the Opposition leader's post in the legislature -- a first in Maharashtra in 60 years.
Despite its depleted numbers, Uddhav Thackeray declared his intent to go solo in the local polls, without the MVA.
The SP has already quit the coalition, although this will not make a material difference to the MVA's prospects.
"Even when we had an alliance with the BJP, local elections were always fought independently. There's a huge stake at the grassroots level to get posts in the local bodies, and we cannot anger our cadre by denying their claims. We need to constantly build our organisation and infuse fresh members from the grassroots," said Sanjay Raut, SS (UBT) spokesperson.
However, fault lines within the MVA were already visible for other reasons.
The SS (UBT) was annoyed with the NCP (SP) for lately warming up to Eknath Shinde and the BJP.
In a prelude to the All India Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held in Delhi from February 21 to 23, which was attended by Pawar as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the NCP (SP) chief felicitated Shinde with an award named after the legendary Maratha general Mahadji Shinde, prompting an outcry from Uddhav's party.
Raut held a press conference in which he was quoted as saying: 'He (Shinde) is not a leader, he is a betrayer... Pawar Saheb should not have attended the function,' and expressed his 'deep hurt' over honouring those who broke the Sena.
The political context for the Sena's anger stemmed from reports that the Shinde Sena wanted to poach on Sena (UBT)'s remaining MLAs as well as its Lok Sabha MPs (nine) to shore up its own and the BJP's numbers. The operation is called 'Project Tiger'.
There was more evidence of a section of Uddhav's party wanting to come closer to Shinde.
The presence of his MP, Sanjay Dina Patil, and three others at the literary event and at a dinner hosted by Shinde's MP and central minister, Prataprao Jadhav, in Delhi stoked speculation.
"What's the point of stagnating in the Opposition for another five years? We may as well search for greener pastures," said an SS (UBT) MP.
The Pawar-Modi camaraderie was evident at past public events too.
On February 23, when Modi arrived at the Marathi literary function, Pawar, who was the chairperson of the reception committee, greeted the PM effusively, while Modi pulled up a chair and poured a glass of water for the person he once described as his 'political guru'.
As Pawar remains characteristically inscrutable, political sources maintained that Modi was 'keen' on getting the NCP (SP) over to the Mahayuti to counter Shinde's 'demands' and, from a long-term perspective, to act as a cushion against his present allies, Nitish Kumar and N Chandrababu Naidu, "in case their relationship became untenable."
Pawar himself does not have much of a stake in the urban local body polls but is invested in the semi-urban and rural bodies in his turf, western Maharashtra, where his nephew Ajit Pawar has emerged as a tough challenger.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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