Maharashtra polls: Who is the CM candidate? BJP, Sena in tug-of-war
With fewer than two months left for Assembly polls, NDA has decided to contest without a CM face. A decision that has not gone down well with Eknath-led Shiv Sena
All is not well among the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) 's partners ahead of the crucial Maharashtra assembly elections.
With fewer than two months left for the Assembly polls, the NDA has decided to contest without a chief ministerial face. A decision on who will be the chief minister if the ruling alliance is voted back to power will only be taken after the state polls.
Even as there are rumblings within the alliance about this decision, the NDA partners have also not been able to finalise the seat-sharing formula for the 288-member assembly polls. Though senior NDA leaders have said that the Election Commission (EC) could very well announce the dates for the Maharashtra assembly election in the first week of October.
Lack of consensus
Krishna Hegde, senior Shiv Sena leader and party spokesperson, admitted to The Federal that the NDA has not been able to finalise the seat-sharing arrangement until now but he also felt that there is still time.
“We believe the Election Commission will announce the dates of the state polls in the first week of October. The elections are due in November this year, so there is time. However, the election campaign has started for all the three alliance partners of the NDA, and we are going to every village to talk about the development work done by Maharashtra and the Union government,” he added.
With the Maharashtra assembly elections around the corner, and with no consensus yet on the seat-sharing arrangement, most of the senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are of the opinion that the national party must contest a majority of the seats in the upcoming polls.
BJP senior leaders are keen to contest in at least 150 assembly seats, while the remaining 138 seats can be divided between the Shiv Sena faction under chief minister Eknath Shinde and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) under deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.
Fissures in ruling alliance
Even as the NDA partners struggle to finalise their seat-sharing formula, the decision not to announce a chief ministerial candidate for the assembly elections has also created fissures within the ruling alliance.
As the BJP plans to contest a majority of the seats in the Maharashtra assembly, senior leaders of the party want the central leadership to claim the post of chief minister after the polls. BJP members are of the view that since the BJP is contesting most of the seats and it is the largest party of the alliance, the BJP should get the chance to lead the government.
A senior BJP leader from Maharashtra told The Federal that conventional wisdom suggests that the BJP should get the CM’s post if the NDA is in a position to form the government after the polls.
BJP stakes claim
Since the BJP is contesting most of the seats, it is obvious that senior leaders of the BJP in Maharashtra want the chief ministerial candidate to be from the party, he said.
“After the polls, if the NDA is able to form the government, then it is possible that Devendra Fadnavis, who is the senior-most leader of the BJP in Maharashtra, is a contender for the chief minister’s post. The final call on who will be the next chief minister will be taken by the central leadership,” he added.
The decision of the BJP leadership in Maharashtra to claim the post of chief ministership if NDA returns to power in the state is not going down well with its alliance partners. Senior leaders of the Shiv Sena under chief minister Eknath Shinde are of the opinion that the NDA will contest the polls under the leadership of a chief minister, who is the current leader of the NDA in the state.
“It is obvious that since Eknath Shinde is the chief minister of Maharashtra, the NDA will contest the polls under his leadership. There should be no doubt that he will lead the NDA in the elections,” said Hegde.
Dismal performance
The problem within the NDA started after the Lok Sabha elections, when the NDA's below-par performance brought down the BJP's seat tally, and the ruling party failed to get a majority on its own for the first time in a decade.
Ever since NDA's dismal performance in the Lok Sabha polls, when the ruling alliance could manage to win only 17 out of the 48 seats, the three alliance partners want to reverse their electoral fortunes in the upcoming polls.
Political analysts believe that the BJP will not make the mistake of announcing a chief ministerial candidate and instead contest the polls under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Single largest party
Yatindra Singh Sisodia, director, Madhya Pradesh Institute of Social Science Research, too believes the BJP is most likely to claim the seat of the chief minister this time.
He told The Federal, “Both Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar are junior partners in the alliance, and it is the BJP that is the bigger party. The BJP leadership already gave up its claim on the chief minister's post at the time of government formation and made Eknath Shinde chief minister of Maharashtra. It is possible that the BJP would like to now claim the top seat.”
Moreover, it cannot be ruled out that the BJP can become the single largest party in Maharashtra in this election, he pointed out.
