Cabinet shuffle aimed at weakening Sena’s grip in Maharashtra’s key areas

With 4 BJP leaders from Maharashtra starring in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mega Cabinet reshuffle, the BJP seems to have labored out a effectively thought-out stratagem to unsettle the tripartite Uddhav Thackeray -led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and significantly goal its estranged saffron ally, the Shiv Sena, in key areas of the State.

The train noticed the induction of the Sena’s perennial bete noire, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane, into the Union Cabinet and Kapil Patil, Dr. Bhagwat Karad and Bharati Pawar as Ministers of State (MoS).

The induction of the Konkan strongman, himself a former Shiv Sainik, who can be an necessary face of the Maratha group, is clearly considered as an aggressive transfer on the BJP’s half to neutralise the Sena in the Konkan. Since exiting the Congress in 2017, Mr. Rane’s ‘Sena baiting’ has grown much more strident.

However, his entry into the BJP had not been clean and was a bone of competition when the BJP and the Sena have been in alliance in the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis authorities. He had accused the Sena of intentionally delaying his entry, given the mutual antipathy between himself and Mr. Thackeray.

In September 2017, Mr. Rane severed his decade plus-long affiliation with the Congress with the expectation that the BJP, which is weak in the Konkan belt, would welcome him with open arms. At the time of his exit, he had vowed to deplete the ranks of his former events, the Shiv Sena and the Congress.

Attacks on Thackeray

In the interim up till the current second, he has repeatedly launched vitriolic assaults on Mr. Thackeray, berating the latter’s capabilities as social gathering head after which as Chief Minister.

Mr. Rane, who dominated his fiefdom of Kudal in Sindhudurg district which he held for six phrases as MLA, was comprehensively trounced by the Sena’s Vaibhav Naik in the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections – a defeat he has neither forgotten nor forgiven.

After an extended interval in limbo following his exit from the Congress, Mr. Rane was despatched to the Rajya Sabha backed by the BJP. However, it was solely in October 2019, simply forward of the essential Maharashtra Assembly polls, that he lastly merged his social gathering, the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha (MSP), with the BJP and formally entered the latter social gathering.

The induction of Mr. Patil, a former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief who joined the BJP earlier than the 2014 basic election, is being considered as a transfer to counter Sena stalwart and Maharashtra Minister Eknath Shinde, who at present holds sway over Thane.

Mr. Patil is a two-time BJP MP from Bhiwandi. Importantly, he belongs to the Agri group, which reportedly has appreciable clout over native politics in the Thane and Navi Mumbai areas.

Keen stability of caste pursuits

The reshuffle additionally displays a eager stability of caste pursuits: the induction of Dr. Bhagwat Karad, an influential and skilled OBC chief from the Marathwada area, is supposed to function a stimulus for the social gathering’s additional enlargement in the realm whereas representing very important OBC pursuits.

A former Aurangabad Mayor and a detailed aide of the late Gopinath Munde, observers say that Dr. Karad’s induction might additionally act as a counterweight to the interior dissent inside the BJP emanating from different OBC leaders like Pankaja Munde.

The induction of Ms. Bharati Pawar, a first-time MP from Dindori, a tribal constituency in Nasik District, is being seen as a step to neutralise the NCP in northern Maharashtra. Incidentally, simply earlier than the 2019 election, NCP chief Sharad Pawar had introduced Ms. Pawar’s identify as a candidate.

However, in an astonishing flip of occasions, Ms. Pawar switched to the BJP the very subsequent day and went on to attain an emphatic win by defeating the NCP’s Dhanraj Mahale.