BJP, Sena follow the script at Shivaji event
MUMBAI: Keeping the option of a tie-up with the Shiv Sena open for the upcoming Mumbai civic polls, the BJP on Saturday ensured it kept its ally happy at the foundation-stone laying ceremony of a bunch of showpiece projects in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Shiv Sena too followed the script though there were uneasy moments when workers from both sides resorted to a slogan-war.
Through the action-packed day, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis ensured Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray got the ‘due respect’ that the latter had asked for. Thackeray was given a place on the dais and preference higher than even Union ministers.
Thackeray has been on the offensive against BJP over the move to scrap `500 and `1000 notes.
Thackeray shared the stage with Modi in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and accompanied the Prime Minister to an islet where a Chhatrapati Shivaji memorial is to come up – the largest statue in the world. Thackeray was given a cauldron of water from Maharashtra’s major rivers, and stones and soil from the state’s forts, to pour into the water after Modi and perform “jalpujan”.
At BKC too, the Sena chief was seated second from Modi next to the chief minister as Fadnavis and governor Vidyasagar Rao were on the Prime Minister’s either side as per protocol. BJP Maharashtra chief Raosaheb Danve was given a place at the edge of the dais.
Relations between the Sena and BJP — which have ruled the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in an alliance for 20 years — have been choppy in recent months. The BJP has aggressive ambitions to grow in Mumbai, the Sena’s home turf. It wants control over the body that governs India’s financial capital and has been under de-facto Sena control of Sena for two decades. However, the Sena, reduced to being the BJP’s junior partner at the state level, wants to establish its significance in the alliance by playing the dominant force in the Mumbai civic polls. The situation has led to frequent instances of friction.
Analysts say the government’s demonetisation move to target black money was initially welcomed but the enthusiasm has waned as the cash situation hasn’t improved. This has worried a section of the BJP, which fears that the criticism over demonetisation could deepen by next month, closer to the elections. The BJP wants to keep the option of allying with the Sena open to blunt any potential impact.
Even while acknowledging the presence of dignitaries on stage, both Modi and Fadnavis took Thackeray’s name right after the governor, ahead of any cabinet ministers. Union minister Nitin Gadkari also mollycoddled the Sena by sending a veiled message that the BJP was not trying to usurp the legacy of Shivaji, and recognised that the warrior king has been the Sena’s icon for years.
But not everything was hunky-dory with bitter slogan shouting between BJP and Shiv Sena workers, indicating that things could turn sour ahead of the crucial civic polls.