Maharashtra Polls: The Thackeray cousins and the rest; it is Mumbai Meri Jaan

Mumbai: Bal Thackeray didn’t ever want to contest any election. Not once. The Shiv Sena that he founded was aimed at getting the Marathi manoos his rights in Mumbai which was being overrun by migrants, and taking away jobs, and had no political ambitions. But soon Shiv Sena got into electoral politics, first the Mumbai civic body and then the legislature, and even into the Lok Sabha, but he remained steadfast.

It was he who spoke of feeling quite powerful by not being in the government but controlling it with remote control. “I have a remote control in my hands and thus I run the government,” was how he often explained it. He mocked the Congress for its High Command culture but revelled in how he controlled the Shiv Sena-led alliance government in Maharashtra. Often BJP too bowed to him.

The only person who does not want to contest an election – at least as of now – is Bal Thackeray’s nephew, Raj Thackeray who split away to found his own Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). The other branch led by Uddhav has contested elections; Uddhav himself was elected to the Legislative Council after he became the Chief Minister in 2019. But his party is in the contest.

Amit Thackeray

He has, however, fielded his son, Amit Thackeray, from a city constituency, Mahim, and the BJP would like to see the Shiv Sena (Shinde) withdraw its candidate, Sada Sarvankar, a longtime Sainik from Bal Thackeray’s time and four terms in the legislature. Raj Thackeray has sought no favours from Uddhav-led Shiv Sena but in 2019 had withdrawn the MNS nominee to make it easier for Aaditya Thackeray.

Aaditya won and was conferred a ministership by his father. Now that Thackeray dynasty is in full flow in electoral politics by contesting them. Uddhav remains an MLC but his son, Aaditya Thackeray is seeking a reelection from Worli, challenged by Milind Deora an MP from Shinde’s Sena. The Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping that Shiv Sena (Shinde) would withdraw its candidate.

Before we turn to why the Sena wants to be politically kind to Raj’s son, let us look at another young man, Varun Sardesai. He is Aaditya’s maternal cousin, overseas educated and till he was nominated, an efficient aide to Aaditya. It was Varun who handled the elections to the Mumbai University Senate elections and earned his spurs by sweeping it. He now gets his deserts and his key rival is Zeeshan Siddiqui, son of the murdered leader from Bandra.

There never has been such a flood of candidates from the Thackeray clan and the reason the BJP wants Mahayuti to support Raj’s son is because Raj has promised to sail with it. In a tightly contested poll – which it promises to be – every vote, especially every seat is of value. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has fielded 148 candidates for as many constituencies out of the 288 seats.

Withering of MNS

In his party’s first foray into electoral politics, MNS had 19 MLAs but being far from power, had withered away. This time the party could be seen as a vote cutter, especially of Uddhav’s Sena and prove of value to BJP. That is how the cookie would crumble, according to the calculations of the BJP, first voiced by Ashish Shelar, the Mumbai city chief of the BJP. He had no qualms about deviating from the Mahayuti for bigger gains.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis thinks alike. Despite the claims of returning to power, despite the rebellion within his and other parties – no party has been free from it – each party knows that it is an existential election for them. Each, save the Congress and the BJP, the others have to prove that they are the original party, notwithstanding what the ECI decided. So to let Raj’s son have an easier way, he is willing to ask Shinde to make a sacrifice.

Sada Sarvankar is firm. He has been nominated with Eknath Shinde’s full approval, but for public statements, none has approached him to withdraw and nor was he willing to back out. Sada Sarvankar was one of those who had disliked Raj Thackeray from splitting the Shiv Sena to form his MNS and neither had Raj Thackeray approached him or sent an emissary. He wants to remain in the race, but one never knows what transpires on the last day for withdrawals