Mumbai: A large number of Shiv Sena legislators in Maharashtra, including ministers, are getting increasingly frustrated over what they see as the party leadership’s inconsistent stand on a number of issues and frequent fights with Sena ally the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
These legislators feel that the party needs to review its strategy on issues such as farm debt-waiver, the relationship with the BJP and legislative performance.
“By inconsistent stand on issues as sensitive as farm loan waiver, we have cut a very sorry figure in the legislature and in government. When the budget session started, we were asked to take an aggressive stance on loan waiver which we did. But then we were asked to tone down our protest even when loan waiver was not granted. This makes us look like a confused party,” said a senior Sena leader and minister, requesting anonymity. He pointed out that the opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party have been taunting Shiv Sena over its frequent flip-flop on debt-waiver.
In their “Sangharsh Yatra” (struggle march) launched on 29 March to demand farm loan waiver, the opposition parties have attacked the Shiv Sena for its “hypocrisy” on this issue. Sena legislators who were most vocal on farm debt-waiver at the start of the budget session have now gone completely mute in the legislature. “Strategies are being formed and executed in a very ad hoc manner. There have been days during the budget session when we were clueless about our strategy in the legislature. We have been asked to change positions on a daily basis,” said one legislator who did not wish to be named.
He recalled how chief minister Devendra Fadnavis took senior Sena ministers to Delhi a fortnight back to meet union finance minister Arun Jaitley on farm loan waiver. “Fadnavis just made a good-looking spectacle of holding discussions with the centre. But nothing concrete came out of it and yet we were asked to tell the media that we were satisfied with the meeting and that Fadnavis ably represented the issue. Next day we did a complete U-turn on this issue,” the legislator said.
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Sena legislators and ministers are also peeved at the way their alliance with the BJP and participation in governance is “remote-controlled” by party chief Uddhav Thackeray. “In the cabinet meetings, the nature of our participation is determined by the status of alliance with the BJP. We are asked to take a stubborn and non-cooperative stand when the alliance is under stress. We step up pressure on BJP and give tough statements in the media. But we change our position by the time the next cabinet meeting is held—without the BJP conceding to any of our demands. We end up looking very comical in the cabinet,” said another senior Sena minister not willing to be named.
On Saturday, all Shiv Sena ministers met Fadnavis with a list of works in the constituencies of Sena legislators after Sena cadres complained to Thackeray that BJP legislators got their constituency development projects sanctioned faster than their Sena counterparts. “While each legislator gets the same allocation of constituency development fund, BJP legislators get quicker project approvals and funds sanctioned. This keeps the BJP cadres happy about their legislators as compared to our cadres. This is very important because we are unlikely to have alliance with the BJP in the next assembly election and BJP legislators will obviously benefit from these development works in their constituencies,” said the minister.
Sena cadres have also told Thackeray that some Sena ministers were “very slow on delivery” when it came to addressing grievances and requests for works in the constituencies. A Mumbai legislator, who did not wish to be named, said Thackeray had taken a harsh view of the “underperformance” of some ministers who had failed to deliver for the party in the recent municipal and zilla parishad polls. “Barring a couple of ministers, others failed to ensure party victory in their districts or constituencies. This is very demoralising for the cadres who feel that the party is not extracting any benefit out of its participation in government,” said the legislator. He said Thackeray was seriously contemplating changes in the organization as well as government. “Some ministers may be asked to step down and they may get replaced by more efficient legislators,” he said.
