BJP engineers ‘Maha’ rebellion in Shiv Sena

Hyderabad: The deepening political crisis in Maharashtra is further accentuated by the deft moves of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which apparently does not want to lose an opportunity to topple the Maha Vikas Aghadi government to take control of the reins of the State.

The fast-paced developments on Tuesday in which Eknath Shinde raised a banner of revolt against the Shiv Sena leadership were done with the blessing of the BJP, which was watching the emerging situation with glee. The BJP which has 106 MLAs falls short of 37 MLAs to reach the magic figure, but currently, Shinde seems to be having only 22 MLAs with him.

Though there is a possibility of the BJP bigwigs swinging deals to woo the MLAs from other political parties, the BJP, it is said, would rather adopt a wait and watch strategy for the simple reason that it does not want a repeat of 2019 when Devendra Fadnavis government collapsed within 80 hours.

It may be recalled that on November 23, 2019, Fadnavis took the oath with the support of Ajit Pawar but his government collapsed within days. This mood is reflected in the statements of BJP State president Chandrakanth Patil too. Intriguingly, he maintained that his party will not demand a no-confidence motion. But if others do and the current dispensation does not muster the required numbers on the floor of the House, it could mean the imposition of President’s rule, which again would work out to the advantage of the BJP.

Eknath Shinde currently has 22 MLAs from Shiv Sena and enjoys the support of four independent MLAs too. This way Uddhav Thackeray’s support dwindled by 26 MLAs. The BJP must encourage 11 more MLAs to switch sides and this is where the dirty game of politics is being witnessed in Maharashtra now.

For the BJP to stake a claim to forming a government, Shinde must get 37 MLAs’ support so that the law of defection is not applicable. The State has 288 Assembly seats, and one seat has fallen vacant and two of the legislators are in jail. This way the total number remains 285 and in this situation, BJP needs 143 seats to form the government.

Currently, all these calculations would go for a toss, if the MLAs with Eknath Shinde are disqualified but so far there was no such move reported till midnight. Whatever the turn the political situation could take on Wednesday, it’s the BJP that is enjoying the show after encouraging Eknath Shinde to raise the banner of revolt against the Shiv Sena.