Eknath Shinde stooped all lows to dismantle Maha Vikas Aghadi government and re-established his new alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Reason he gave was ideological differences and unfair treatment by the Congress Party and NCP. If you remember the earlier days of formation of Maha Vikas Aghadi, when Supriya Sule was seen welcoming all the leaders of Shiv Sena-NCP and Congress to a mega meet, that time these leaders were seen cheerful. Not only had that but Eknath Shinde and other rebels accepted ministry in Maha Vikas Aghadi cabinet. If at all that alliance was unholy or unnatural, why did these Shiv Sainiks accept ministerial posts? Why did they accept this alliance in the first place, why were they not as aggressive as they are now? Why did they not stop Uddhav or threaten him to leave Shiv Sena then? Do you think alliance was an actual problem? NO! The problem was ED, IT and CBI haunting these corrupts.
They all wanted to save their soul and for that they mortgaged their integrity by joining hands with the atrocious BJP. They wanted to get rid of on-going searches against them. BJP’s Kirit Somaiya told media that he will continue to pursue case against ‘dirty dozen’; these dirty dozen are none-other than Yamini Jadhav and Pratap Sarnaik, Yashwant Jadhav, Eknath Shinde (his CA was on ED radar), Bhavna Gavali , Anand Adsul , Hasan Mushriff , Pratap Sarnaik, Ravindra Waikar etc. most of these Harrys are with BJP. Former Chief Minister Devendra fadnavis, now shakes hands with these corrupt ministers and there is no hesitation from Somaiya or any other BJP leader. Looking at the present scenario we can see how ED, IT and CBI were used to demoralise these ministers until they joined the BJP and brought them back to power. For now ED is assigned to Sanjay Raut, if tomorrow Raut joins BJP he would come clean from all enquiries.
Eknath Shinde’s fellow Shiv Sena members said that their complaints were ignored by Uddhav Thackeray and Uddhav favored Congress Party and NCP over his own Shiv Sena members. Why did none of the Shiv Sainik then objected or made it public as they are making it now? What must have drastically changed? Shinde gathered 2/3rd members from his party to support his request. What all Shinde has not done for BJP, he took all the rebels to Surat in BJP-governed Gujarat, throwing the coalition into a chaos. As a result of Shinde’s revolt, Uddhav Thackeray resigned from the post of Chief Minister of Maharashtra and he also resigned from the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Shinde sworn in as the 20th Chief Minister with Bharatiya Janata Party’s Devendra Fadnavis as the Deputy Chief Minister but in this entire bargain, Eknath forgot the fact that he will always remain a rubber stamp, nothing more than that.
Shinde took to the highest position, rebels got their bounty but when it comes to the future, they all know nothing much can come their way. Most of the Shinde camp leaders are now joining BJP. They don’t want to trust Shinde because they know Shinde in Shiv Sena and Shinde as migrant in BJP have vast differences. Some rebels silently wait for the miracle to happen, they believe in those media reports that one day Uddhav will surrender to BJP and all is going to be well. Most of the rebels portrayed Shard Pawar as a villain but they forgot the fact that they all are opportunists.
Let time come BJP will do the correct programme of Eknath Shinde, a leader who can trash the grand old political party of Maharashtra can do anything anywhere because their ambitions are bigger than their allegiance. BJP is a very brilliant political player, their leaders are survivors and they know where to pull the string or when to hold the string. Eknath would be strangled in his own plot one day, as all his rebel supporters are leaving him one by one and approaching MNS and BJP. Moreover BJP would be extra alert of this leader, if Eknath goes out of control they know how to chuk him. Eknath has no other option than acting as a rubber stamp CM in BJP’s hands.
In the meantime the Supreme Court is hearing the pleas relating to the Sena vs Sena legal battle over rebellion in the party. However, the court will decide on the matter during the next hearing, likely to be held on August 1. A bench headed by CJI NV Ramana asked both Thackeray and Shinde factions to frame issues they wanted to argue, make one compilation and submit it preferably by next Wednesday. It also directed the respondents to file a common affidavit if they want to deny any allegations. Disqualification proceedings, the election of Speaker, recognition of the whip and floor test among other issues are the subject matters of the dispute. A bench led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli granted time to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led camp to file an affidavit on the pleas filed by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray-led faction. Senior advocate Harish Salve for the Shinde camp sought time to file a reply on pleas filed by the Thackeray camp and asked the court to postpone the hearing next week.
Great article and well written!!