Mobilenews24x7 Bureau
Shadow boxing between the BJP and the Shiv Sena Shinde faction has slowly become apparent.
It is a different matter that Eknath Shinde, the chief minister keeps holding to the guy rope of Modi name that his government functions under the guidance of Narendra Modi.
The first indication of the schism between the both surfaced the other day when Eknath’s son Srikant Shinde fired a strong salvo at the BJP accusing that, the latter is indulging in “ Selfish politics”.
Obviously a cold war within the ruling alliance resurfaced when on Wednesday, people of Maharashtra woke up to a massive advertisement of the government in which it said that ‘Modi for India, Shinde for Maharashtra: The Dream Team Loved by All.’
The add had no mention of the deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnaves although the essence of double-engine never missed out.
But the buck did not stop at that. The full page ad was crafted tactfully carrying the symbol of Shinde’s Shiv Sena but nowhere any sign of the BJP.
May be, a deliberately committed omission which can be understood as a partisan take by the Shinde faction.
Of course what adds to the jitter was the branding of the Shinde Shiv Sena and not of the BJP anywhere let alone the deputy chief minister Fadnaves.
Before the current CM joined hands with the BJP in June 2022, the slogan ‘Narendra in the Country, Devendra in the State’ was popular among the BJP followers. It is also not a secret that Fadnavis wasn’t happy about having to cede the CM post to Shinde last year.
The deputy chief minister Fadnaves cancelled his scheduled Kolhapur visit, apparently because he was upset over the ad, sources close to him said.
What appeared more a politically diabolic that in the ad it said that people wanted Shinde to become the CM again than Fadnaves.
The ad had cited a recent survey by Zee News-Matrize stating that 26.1% wished to see Shinde as CM in the next term, ahead of Fadnavis, who was preferred by 23.2% people.
Playing a leveler role the BJP State President Chandrakant Bawankule said that it was wrong to conclude that Shinde was ahead and Fadnavis has fallen behind.
The war is on
Not an indirect hint of the angst but a straight show of dominance was in the posters on the Cabinet dcisions what was conspicuously missing was the photograph of Shinde which was shared by BJP in the social media.
Realising the heat and dust kicked off by the ad, the Shiv Sena was quickly in a damage control mode by the end of the day. The Sena attributed the miss to that the ad was from any well wisher not from the official sources.
Quite obvious that Shinde has began to assert himself in the double-engine government as for 2024 Assembly polls Shinde is tipped to return again than anybody else.
It is not easy to forget that, Chandrashekhar Bawankule the state BJP president had said that the BJP was not in favour of installing Fednaves as the CM for the sake of it,,
Ad or no ad but it slowly appears that, Shinde would not be happy with anything other than the CM post in the near future.
