Mumbai: As the political atmosphere still unfolds, the Maharashtra Assembly elections get closer, tensions in the alliances are emerging due to conflicting ideologies. Different poll parties are antecedent that BJP in conjunction with Ajit Pawar’s NCP and Eknath Shinde Shiv Sena are competitors in the election, though in combination, strains in Mahayuti (Grand Alliance) are apparent. There are poles apart though Shinde has completely sold himself to the BJP while Ajit Pawar is yet to find his feet, especially with the BJP’s Hindutva stance and rhetoric of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath.
Ajit Pawar has made it perfectly clear that he is not completely on the same wavelength as the BJP. I have personally seen ticket distribution by Pawar and while BJP leaders criticised this step of him and objected to it, he allotted a ticket to Nawab Malik & his daughter Sana Malik both are from Muslim dominated localities in Mumbai contesting in different assembly seats. Pawar declined to host public meetings by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath in his home ground of Baramati saying he does not like to bring other large political figures into the electoral battle because he is contesting against his own nephew, Yugendra pawar.
This antagonism between Pawar and the BJP was openly seen after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s objectionable slogan – ‘Bantenge to Katenge’ [Divide, We Shall Fall] – in the Maharashtra campaign to revive the Hindutva imagery. In a way, Pawar officially dismissed this slogan saying that Maharashtra has never been anti-secular and has accommodated secularism of Shahu Maharaj, Jyotiba Phule and Ambedkar. Pawar left no doubt about such bad politics in Maharashtra and added that his party’s policy for Maharashtra was ‘Sarvodaya for Maharashtra’ meaning, ‘with all, for the development of all’.
Another bone of contention has been Pawar’s continued backing of Nawab Malik. Despite criticism from BJP leaders of alleged connexion with Australian underworld criminal Dawood Ibrahim, Malik retains Pawar’s support. Pawar has always stood for Malik maintaining that in equal measure, perception does not equal to crime, saying, “Why should anyone pay for accusations that have not been proven?” He has also been openly canvassing for Nawab Malik and his daughter, Sana Malik, in their respective assembly segments, in complete violation of BJP leaders like Deputy Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis.
Pawar’s strategy looks like compensation – taking active part in the alliance with the BJP but at the same time striving to stay independent. A number of critics argue that Pawar wants to preserve the Muslim vote base that may turn its back to him given his collaboration with the BJP. His public disapproval of Adityanath’s polarising slogans, and his support for Nawab Malik is calculated to maintain a secular facade, akin to Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar.
With the Maharashtra assembly elections getting closer, the frailest aspect of the new understanding between Ajit Pawar and the BJP weakens the Mahayuti coalition. Pawar did not embrace the Hindutva ideology and supports Nawab Malik to outline HIS political difference within a different political affair . Whether this strategy will help the parties sell themselves to the voters or blow up in their face remains to be seen, though it has certainly made what was already a toss-up election even more difficult to predict.
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