THE FEUD BETWEEN Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and Maharashtra’s ruling coalition led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction and the BJP is fast turning into a personal battle among the key protagonists. Addressing a news conference on November 29, Uddhav’s son and former minister Aditya Thackeray said Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was responsible for allowing Gujarat to walk away with the Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor project, which was initially said to be coming up in Maharashtra. Aditya said the details he got under the RTI (Right to Information) Act showed that the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation had invited Vedanta and Foxconn to sign an MoU for the proposed factory. A joint news conference with the chief minister was also scheduled to make the formal announcement. “But Fadnavis held a meeting with Vedanta’s Anil Agarwal and then everything changed,” said Aditya. “Where was this meeting held, what was the agenda, what was discussed, was it held to bring Vedanta-Foxconn to Maharashtra or send it away to Gujarat? Was Shinde aware that such a meeting had taken place?”
While Fadnavis did not respond to the charges, the BJP hit back immediately, alleging that the Uddhav-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had caused a loss of Rs10,000 crore to the exchequer by shifting Mumbai’s metro-3 car shed from Aarey to Kanjurmarg. Keshav Upadhye, chief spokesperson for the Maharashtra BJP, said the Thackerays made it an “ego issue” and hence shifted the car shed to Kanjurmarg, ignoring a report by additional chief secretary Manoj Saunik. “The report had clearly mentioned that Aarey was the best possible location and advised against the shifting. Uddhav Thackeray suppressed this report and moved the project to Kanjurmarg,” said Upadhye. “Now our government has once again decided to construct the car shed in Aarey. Two and a half years were wasted and the cost of the project shot up by Rs10,000 crore. The Thackerays alone are responsible for this cost escalation.” The BJP now wants this amount to be recovered from the Thackerays and their Shiv Sena faction.
As the slugfest continues, both sides are building up their arsenal keeping in mind the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) elections, likely early next year. Meanwhile, there is a lot of heartburn within the Thackeray family and the Sena faction it controls. First, they lost power in Maharashtra. Second, Shinde split the party to become chief minister. And finally, there is the realisation that even if the MVA returns to power in the 2024 elections, there is no guarantee that Uddhav’s Sena will get the chief minister’s post as the NCP could emerge as the biggest party in the alliance. So the Thackeray family’s–especially Uddhav’s wife, Rashmi’s–wish to make Aditya chief minister is unlikely to materialise. Aditya keeps blaming Shinde and his “monstrous ambition” and believes that Fadnavis is running the show.
“The Uddhav group is trying to build a narrative that Fadnavis is the super CM and Shinde is just a puppet,” said political analyst Abhay Deshpande. “Uddhav’s Sena is creating an image that with Shinde in power, Maharashtra is at a disadvantage, while states like Gujarat are benefitting. The Thackerays will continue to build this narrative and mount a spirited attack on the BJP ahead of the BMC elections.”
The BJP, meanwhile, is looking at the CAG audit of BMC projects undertaken during the pandemic. The allotment of Covid centres, the purchases made, the road works carried out and the alleged irregularities in giving ‘mobile tablets’ to school students are likely to be scrutinised by the CAG. “If we dig into each and every department and scrutinise the decisions taken during the MVA rule, then Uddhav Thackeray and other MVA leaders will not be able to show their faces in Maharashtra,” said state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule. He has mooted the idea of the government presenting white papers on the alleged mismanagement in every department.
A step in that direction has already been initiated by the Shinde–Fadnavis duo. After facing a lot of heat following the flight of big ticket initiatives like the Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor plant and the Tata-Airbus aircraft project to Gujarat, Industries Minister Uday Samant was asked to conduct a probe into whether his department lost any projects during the MVA rule. “A white paper on the subject will be prepared by a committee of experts in 60 days. The committee will have two retired bureaucrats, who will examine the MoUs finalised in the last two and a half years and assess how much investment came to our state and went to other states,” said Samant.
The BJP is also keenly watching the public interest litigation filed by Dadar resident Gauri Bhide in the Bombay High Court seeking a probe into the Thackeray family’s wealth, said to be accumulated over the years. The PIL is likely to come up for hearing on December 8.
As allegations keep flying thick and fast, the political battle is unlikely to get over any time soon. Any semblance of peace can only be expected after the elections to the BMC and other municipal corporations.