Resort politics & drama

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 23

Dramatic happenings in Mumbai in the wee hours are proof enough that BJP’s master strategist Amit Shah was silently working on a Maharashtra plan even as the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress held marathon meetings. However, the drama is far from over.

Resort politics has just begun and what is expected is a whole lot of political manoeuvring, intrigue and drama ahead of a floor test by newly anointed CM Devendra Fadnavis. The BJP could not have afforded to lose Maharashtra. Shah and his lieutenants ensured that this did not happen. The NDA, which lost an ally in the Shiv Sena, gained a new one while giving the collation an altogether new look and perspective.

No one could have envisaged a split in the NCP with its very own strategist Sharad Pawar at the helm. Whether nephew Ajit Pawar’s  decision was prompted by personal reasons, such as the “irrigation scam”, or by the desire to take control of the NCP is a separate point of debate. 

The manner in which the BJP, which on Friday had said the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress would not last beyond “six to eight months”, swooped in to form government in Maharashtra with “strange bedfellow” Ajit Pawar, confirms that politics is the art of the impossible.The saffron party would have had much more to worry if the three “ideologically mismatched” partners had manged to pull through for full five years in the politically important Maharashtra with the second largest number of MPs in the Lok Sabha (48) after Uttar Pradesh (80).

The BJP leadership was worried, not just regarding Maharashtra but also states going to the polls soon. The Maharashtra experiment would have acted as template for political explorations by its rivals. Besides, it would have demoralised the party cadre. Analysts point out that had it not been for NCP and Congress turncoats, the BJP would have won seats much less than 105 in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.

Speculation persists on what transpired when Sharad Pawar met PM Narendra Modi earlier this week. Whether the former masterminded the dramatic coup today or was “stabbed” in the back by his nephew, only time will tell.