The political strategies of Indian politics these days, seem to be providing new lessons to even the great strategists like Kautilya/Chanakya. The recent Maharashtra political drama is a perfect example of this statement!!
Nitin Gadkari's remarks that politics and cricket of India are quite unpredictable - the Fadnavis government of Maharashtra, which collapsed in four days, has proven itself to be a complete failure, just as the same. Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) or the Tripaksha Alliance formed by the parties - Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress chose Uddhav Thackrey as their leader and just as the final stage is being put in place on the night of 22nd November 2019, around 8 pm, and by 8 am the next day, the Maha politics had taken a paradigm shift, making the entire nation glued to their television sets, for updates. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), under the name – ‘Operation Aakarsh’, was successful in luring Ajit Pawar, the Leader of the Legislative Assembly of Nationalist Congress Party, along with 54 of his supporters. This success prompted the BJP to call for the revoking of the President rule and complete the swearing-in of Fadnavis as CM and Ajit Pawar as Dy.CM. While Ajit Pawar was able to help in reappointing Fadnavis as the chief minister, the NCP could not be divided as expected and as such Ajit Pawar’s team could not help the ruling party prove its strength for setting up of the government.
In the wake of the judgement of NV Ramana's three-member bench headed by Justice NV Ramana, the resignation of Ajit Pawar has left Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the lurch. This resulted in Fadnavis too resigning from his post of Chief Minister. Thereafter, BJP had taken a step back and let the NCP-Congress-Sena alliance to form the government, in just 4 days of them taking over. In the current scenario, it is to be seen whether the Tripartite Alliance could make justice and form a stable government without letting their individual party theories clash with each other.
In the year 1996 too, the then Prime Minister, Vajpayee who had been serving for the past 13-days in the post, stated that he would not like to be holding such post which can be formed only with a split in the opposition party. Such is the precedence that India had been exposed to!! Those kinds of ideological values are literally invalid in contemporary politics wherein the parties and its members are ready to go to any extent in order to get and be in power!! The Shiv-Sena party won 56 seats in the Maharashtra elections on October 21, 2019, with 25.7 per cent of the votes and 105 seats. In the ruling coalition, which won more seats than the usual majority, the Shiv Sena's demands for incumbents, including the chief minister's seat, have led to political uncertainty and the president's rule. The Congress had been able to secure the support of the Congress-led Shiv Sena-NCP for the post of Chief Minister.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which chose to term the NCP as the Naturally Corrupt Party, earlier, was now ready to join with Ajit Pawar and had even provided the Deputy Chief Minister post to pacify Ajit and his team. BJP has been accused of immoral alliances, while the same strategies have been a reason for authority in many states starting from Goa to Manipur. Today, Ajit Pawar’s political game reflects the saying - "If you give for one, I will drink for one". It is not known as to why the BJP, a party well-known for its ideological leaders and committed cadres, is running after power, as seen in the Karnataka politics earlier and the Maharashtra incidence, recently.
Fadnavis, after resigning from his post, had prophesied that the MVA is like travelling on a 3-wheeled auto, each wheel of which is moving in its own direction. He further stated that it is bound to be overthrown, as a result of its own follies. Why did the Kamalnaths wait till the people of Maharashtra themselves could find out the ideological sway and the ruckus created by politics in the state administration, that is yet to come in the near future? While the Fadnavis says that it is not their wish to horse-trade MLAs just for the sake of majority and power, who allowed Ajit Pawar to do it on their behalf, in the first instance? If the collision The 70 per cent victory in the contested seats does not stand the logic of ensuring that they have the support of the public.
The BJP became the single largest political party in the recent Karnataka elections, losing only a few seats to the general majority and the Governor with the same kind of invitation formed the government under Yeddyurappa. Even then, Yeddyurappa had to quit without bargaining with the supreme mandate that faith tests should be carried out. It is recent history as to how the BJP disagreed with the JD (S) congress coalition!! If only a lesson has been learnt from the earlier Karnataka scenario, it would have been easier for BJP to let the tripartite alliance become a joke in the eyes of the Maha public, thereby proudly showcasing its diversity.
Now the big question is –
What did BJP finally achieve of its own obsession with ideal politics? The only thing left is the despair of the wretched fruit!
