Trust Deficit Between Mahayuti Partners Increasing Too Much For Their Comfort

Every time Union Home Minister Amit Shah comes to Maharashtra these days, he has to give a hearing to state deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde over the grievances Shinde has to voice. Eknath Shinde is generally unhappy over the way his Shiv Sena party members are being, allegedly, given secondary treatment in the functioning of the government in Maharashtra. There are too many issues on which Shinde has complaints, whether it is about the allocation of funds given to Shinde's party MLAs or the various project-related files that are not getting clearance fast enough. How there is a discord between three partners of the BJP-led Mahayuti is no secret. It is interesting to see why there is so much trust deficit between Shinde and the BJP now and why the BJP has started giving more importance to Ajit Pawar in the alliance to almost challenge Shinde's domination.

Last weekend, the deputy CM made it a point to have one-on-one meetings twice with Amit Shah. Sources inside the Shiv Sena informed the media about the discussions that happened in the two closed-door meetings. One meeting happened late at night in Pune and the other in Mumbai. Shinde complained about how his MLAs were not being given enough funds by the state finance minister, Ajit Pawar, and how his crucial files were not getting clearance fast enough from Chief Minister Fadnavis's office. Reportedly, Shah gave some assurances to Shinde but also asked him to be patient and not voice his complaints publicly.

It is clear that the BJP wants to cut Shinde down to size. The answer as to why the BJP is so keen to put Shinde on the back foot is quite interesting. Firstly, it is thought that the way Shinde challenged the BJP during the formation of the state government four months ago was not appreciated by the top leadership, and secondly, it is obvious that the BJP does not want a partner in their alliance who belongs to the Hindutva space!

Against the backdrop of the debacle that happened during the Lok Sabha polls of 2024, the BJP was wise to announce that the Assembly polls in the state, which happened six months after the Lok Sabha polls, would be fought under the leadership of Eknath Shinde. The target was to corner Uddhav Thackeray's party and make Shinde fight hard in strongholds of the Uddhav Thackeray Sena. Indirectly, Shinde was given the impression that he would be the top leader of the new government if the BJP-led Mahayuti won. However, when the BJP won an unprecedented number, winning 132 seats in the assembly, the party decided that it was time to take total control of the new government. Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as chief minister, and Shinde openly showed disappointment about this. There were rumours in Mumbai that he would stay away from the swearing-in ceremony and may even stay out of the government. But, eventually, he came around and joined the state government as deputy CM after many rounds of negotiations.

Ever since this episode, the BJP has looked at Shinde as a potential threat. They feel that he is ambitious and, with 67 MLAs in the assembly with him, could perhaps try and demand more than 'his pound of flesh' in the state government. The bigger factor is that the BJP does not want any partner in the alliance who belongs to the Hindutva space for fear that he would eat into their vote share eventually. This is the reason why the party is now seen giving preference to its second alliance partner, Ajit Pawar.

Insiders say Shinde is unable to digest the fact that he is not the top boss in the state government anymore and has to accept a secondary role. Maharashtra has seen leaders in the past who held the chief minister's position at some point and later, at some stage, accepted a cabinet minister's position under some other chief minister. One such example was that of Ashok Chavan, who took over as the CM after Vilasrao Deshmukh resigned as CM in 2008 and then, later, worked as a cabinet minister under chief minister Uddhav Thackeray between 2019 and 2022. Some leaders accept working in a secondary position after having held the top post, while some find it difficult to accept such demotion. Shinde seems to be the latter! But his options are very limited. With the BJP's 132 MLAs and Ajit Pawar's 41 MLAs in the assembly, the government is very stable, and all that Shinde can do for now is voice his grievances to the central leadership of the BJP!

Rohit Chandavarkar is a senior journalist who has worked for 31 years with various leading newspaper brands and television channels in Mumbai and Pune