Sena wants CM post, BJP asks for mayoral seat; CM keeps mum
Uddhav Thackeray wants a sainik in the CMO and CM Devendra Fadnavis
Under pressure from the Shiv Sena to concede the Chief Minister's post if the saffron alliance comes to power in the state later this year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has asked the former if it would part with Mumbai mayor's post and allow them to install their own corporator for the remaining half of the five-year term.
Give and take
Along with mayor, the BJP wants Sena to cede the posts of chairman of Standing Committee and Improvements Committee. The two bodies control the BMC's spending, though they are regulated by a state-appointed civic commissioner (IAS officer).
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The two parties are at loggerheads even after entering a pre-poll pact for elections, including for the Lok Sabha, Assembly and local self-government. Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has told sainiks that he hasn't agreed to the BJP's CM, but wants his party to have a sainik in the CMO. With no clarity yet, there are two views on the arrangement. One is that the partners should share the top post for two-and-a-half years each. The other is that the Sena gets the CMO for full term even if it wins numbers fewer than the BJP.
The BJP has denied any such agreement. It said that the party that gets more MLAs would make the CM. A war of words has started over the issue. At a recent award function, CM Devendra Fadnavis said that not all details related to the alliance would be announced immediately or any time soon. He said it is a secret that would be made public at an appropriate time. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was also present at the function.
The BMC polls of 2017 were fought on a fierce note between the BJP and Sena, with the former finishing second. The gap between the two was so marginal that the BJP would have attempted to make its government, but good sense prevailed and the Sena was allowed to field its mayor. Fadnavis had made an announcement himself that BJP would not field a mayor's candidate.
The BJP refused to share power with Sena. Animosity between them was in full display as the BJP said it would act as guardians of the city in view of the rampant corruption in the Sena-led BMC.
The pre-poll alliance and its aftermath has changed the equations yet again. The trap is laid by the BJP and the Sena is yet to react officially. The BMC government has completed two years of the five-year term, and the arrangement of sharing important posts, if agreed by the Sena, should start ahead of the Assembly polls, slated for October.
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