How Raj Thackeray bailed out BJP and Eknath Shinde

New Delhi: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray had offered a face-saver to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by asking it to withdraw its candidate from the Andheri East by-election in Mumbai in favour of Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Rutuja Latke.

Apart from the sympathy factor for Latke whose husband Ramesh Latke died of cardiac arrest in May this year and necessitated the by-election, the BJP’s decision to field Murji Patel, a Gujarati, had revived the ‘Marathi Manoos (son of the soil)’ debate in the state.

In the Marathi versus Gujarati contest, the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction had a clear edge. 

Patel, who was a joint candidate of the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction, had earlier been debarred from contesting the municipal corporation elections for six years on the ground of allegedly submitting a fake caste certificate. The issue resurfaced since his name was announced by the BJP.

It is surprising that the BJP had not done its homework while zeroing in on its candidate.

That said, Raj Thackeray’s letter to deputy chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis to withdraw from the contest appears to be a well-thought-out strategy to save the ruling side from any embarrassment in the event of a defeat, which seemed certain as Latke had a clear edge over Patel. Besides, she also had the backing of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

On the face, it looked like a spontaneous emotional appeal and pressure tactics by the MNS to force the BJP to opt out of the contest by reminding it of the political tradition in Maharashtra of not fighting a by-election if a relative of the deceased legislator decides to enter the fray. 

Soon after, a Shinde camp legislator, Pratap Sarnaik, wrote a letter to the chief minister on similar lines in what appeared as a well-orchestrated plan.

The withdrawal has come as a huge relief to the Eknath Shinde faction given that the BJP’s defeat would have been a major loss of face for the chief minister and his group, especially ahead of the extremely crucial BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) elections.

A few leaders of the Eknath Shinde faction now claim that the withdrawal was part of their strategy to win over Uddhav Thackeray.

But it seems a far-fetched claim given that the bitterness and the fight over supremacy between the two factions had peaked after the parallel Dusshera rallies in which both Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde unleashed a war of words against each other.

With the Andheri East by-poll virtually over, all eyes are now on the BMC elections which is going to be an interesting fight.