A grievance letter posted on X (formerly Twitter) on March 4 has given a peek into the tussle within the ruling Mahayuti alliance, comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), for the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra ahead of the general election.
As per the latest developments, the Sena is demanding 22 seats, the NCP has staked claim to at least 10, while the BJP — the ‘big brother’ of the alliance — is intent on fighting at least 30 seats. It seems a circle impossible to square.
The missive from senior BJP leader Harshavardhan Patil to party colleague Devendra Fadnavis alluded to a ‘sinister’ political campaign by NCP workers in Indapur, one of the six Assembly constituencies that make up the Baramati Lok Sabha seat.
“While I am working under your leadership in the political and social spheres in my taluk, some office-bearers from our allied parties are making objectionable statements against me in public rallies in Indapur, using foul language. I am worried about my safety as they are threatening not to allow me to roam around Indapur during elections,” stated the letter, urging Mr. Fadnavis to take “a firm stand” to nip “hooligan tendencies” in the bud.
The letter has come at a time Mr. Shinde, the Chief Minister, and his deputies, Mr. Fadnavis and Mr. Pawar, have been professing to take their ‘triple-engine government’ forward under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision.
A former four-term MLA and Cabinet Minister, Mr. Patil was once a major figure in the State Congress. He joined the BJP after losing the Indapur seat in the 2019 Assembly election to Dattatreya Bharne, a staunch Ajit Pawar loyalist. The bitter rivalry between Mr. Patil and Mr. Ajit Pawar is well known.
Ever since Mr. Ajit Pawar split the NCP founded by his uncle, Sharad Pawar, and joined the ruling BJP-Sena government in July last year, he has staked his all on wresting the Baramati Lok Sabha seat, currently held by his cousin Supriya Sule (Mr. Sharad Pawar’s daughter)
It is widely believed that Mr. Ajit Pawar’s wife, Sunetra Pawar, will be the Mahayuti candidate for the Baramati seat, pitted against her sister-in-law Sule.
According to observers, the BJP inducted Mr. Ajit Pawar into the government with the expectation that he would help the NDA win the hitherto impregnable Baramati and Shirur Lok Sabha seats, both in Pune district, as part of the BJP’s ‘Mission 45’ plan (to win 45 of the State’s 48 Lok Sabha seats.
Given the acrimony between Mr. Patil and Mr. Ajit Pawar, it is doubtful whether the BJP leader will campaign wholeheartedly for Ms. Pawar.
Tug of war
There is also a tug of war over the Maval Lok Sabha seat in Pune, held by two-time Sena MP Shrirang Barne. While both the NCP and the Sena have staked claim to the seat, the BJP, too, with its increased strength in the region, wants Maval for itself.
There is intense speculation that Mr. Barne, somewhat disaffected with the Sena, could contest on a BJP ticket.
Mr. Barne’s putative candidature is already being strongly opposed by Sunil Shelke, sitting NCP MLA from the Maval Assembly seat and an Ajit Pawar loyalist.
“Does this mean that the BJP has no candidates of its own? Why is it considering giving a ticket to an imported candidate by slighting its own loyalists?” said Mr. Shelke.
Caught in a tussle
In the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg and Raigad Lok Sabha constituencies in the verdant Konkan region, the BJP is facing a challenge from the Sena.
Last week, Sena leader Ramdas Kadam protested after BJP leader and Union Minister Narayan Rane staked claim to the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat.
“This [Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg] has been the BJP’s constituency for years together, be it in the Lok Sabha or the Assembly polls. Nilesh [Mr. Rane’s son and former MP] has been contesting from here. It is the BJP that should get it,” Mr. Narayan Rane said.
Mr. Kadam shot back: “Does the BJP want to finish every other party and live alone? I was the one who led the campaign in the 2019 general election against the BJP. So, how can Rane claim that seat? I do not want to create any controversy within the Mahayuti, but what is happening is not right.”
Mr. Kadam further claimed that said even when the BJP was in alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena, led by Uddhav Thackeray, it had openly voted against the Sena candidates in the Konkan region. “This is not just one instance, but happened at many places,” he said.
In Raigad, Mr. Ajit Pawar’s right-hand man, Sunil Tatkare, is the sitting MP. However, given the intense BJP-Sena antipathy here, it will be hard for the NCP to rely on either ally for help.
Last week, Goa Chief Minister and BJP leader Pramod Sawant visited the Konkan and claimed both the Ratnagiri and the Raigad Lok Sabha seats for the BJP.
“There is a very strong demand that the candidates for both these seats should be from the BJP. Our party is dominant in these constituencies. I will certainly convey the wishes of the cadre in these constituencies to the party’s high command,” Mr. Sawant said.
Irked by the comment, Minister Uday Samant, who belongs to the Sena, said, “Pramod Sawant has claimed the Raigad and Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seats for the BJP. In the same spirit, I shall tour Goa in the coming days and the Sena will be staking claim to South Goa.”
Both the Sena and the BJP have also staked claim to the Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) and Amravati Lok Sabha seats in the arid Marathwada and Vidarbha regions, respectively.
Sambhajinagar in Marathwada has been the undivided Sena’s bastion since the late 1980s. “There is no question that the Sena will be contesting the Sambhajinagar seat. It will fall in our kitty,” said Minister Sandipan Bhumre of the Sena.
His remarks came amid Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Sambhajinagar to assess the BJP’s poll preparedness.
In Amravati, a tussle is on between Sena leader and former MP Anandrao Adsul and incumbent MP Navneet Rana, who won as an Independent in 2019, but supports the BJP.
In Nanded in Marathwada, the BJP’s induction of former Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Chavan is resented by the sitting BJP lawmaker, Prataprao Chikhalikar, who is worried about losing his candidature in the Lok Sabha election.
‘BJP’s daunting task’
According to senior political analyst Vivek Bhavsar, the Mahayuti alliance is a mixture of several vested interests not always in harmony with the greater good of winning the polls.
“Eknath Shinde is fighting to justify his existence. Ajit Pawar’s fight is with his uncle Sharad Pawar, and he wants to cement his claim over the NCP strongholds in the sugar belt of western Maharashtra. By absorbing these two ambitious leaders and sidelining its loyalists, the BJP faces a daunting task of convincing its cadre that its political decisions, of forming the government with Mr. Shinde and inducting Mr. Ajit Pawar, were the right ones,” Mr. Bhavsar said.
