What an upcoming poll reveals about two Maha alliances

The fight for five seats of the Maharashtra legislative council has laid bare tensions in the ruling coalition as well as in the OppositionThe fissures in the ruling Mahayuti coalition and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) have come to the fore ahead of elections to five seats in the Maharashtra legislative council from the graduate and teacher constituencies. Biennial elections for these seats—representing Pune graduates, Pune teachers, Amravati teachers, Nagpur graduates and Aurangabad graduates, respectively—are due on October 23, followed by declaration of the results on October 27.Two of these seats (Pune teachers and Nagpur graduates) are held by the Congress, one each by the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the other NCP led by deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar (Pune graduates and Aurangabad graduates, respectively), and one by an Independent who later shifted allegiance to the Shiv Sena led by deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde.In the past, rebels have shown their potential to upset the applecart of official candidates. Earlier this year, BJP rebel Gokul Gite inflicted a shock defeat on Shiv Sena MLC Kishore Darade from the Nashik local bodies constituency. Though it was claimed that Gite had the backing of elements from within the BJP, he later joined the Shinde Sena as an associate member.The Pune teachers seat will witness Congress MLC Jayant Asgaonkar and his principal challenger Kaustubh Gawade of the BJP face a four-corner fight. While Asgaonkar has support from senior Congress leader and former minister Satej (Bunty) Patil, son of education baron and former governor late D.Y. Patil, Gawade can bank on the network of the Shri Swami Vivekananda Shikshan Sanstha, Kolhapur, of which he is the CEO. The Shiv Sena first sprang a surprise by deciding to field Mangesh Chiwate, a close confidante of Shinde, but Chiwate withdrew his candidature later. However, Sachin Sanap, an aide of industries minister and Shiv Sena leader Uday Samant, remains in the fray. Former MLC Dattatray Sawant is also contesting as an Independent. In the Pune graduates constituency, incumbent NCP (SCP) MLC Arun Lad opted out of a contest, and it was believed his son Sharad would get a BJP nomination from the seat. However, the BJP chose Smita Jadhav, daughter-in-law of media magnate Pratapsinh Jadhav. She is Satej Patil’s niece. Pratap a.k.a. Bhaiyya Mane, a supporter of NCP leader and medical education minister Hasan Mushrif, had thrown his hat into the ring, but withdrew later, in a respite for Jadhav.If rebellion in its ranks has put the Mahayuti in strain in Pune, the MVA is faring no better, Kolhapur corporator Sunil Modi has filed his nomination as a Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) candidate for the Pune graduates seat against the NCP (SCP) nominee Harshada Deshmukh Jadhav, daughter of former IAS officer Prabhakar Deshmukh. The Pune graduates and teachers seats cover the five districts of Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Solapur. Senior NCP leaders Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare have expressed their disgruntlement at the party giving up its claim on the Pune graduates seat, which was won by the undivided NCP, to the BJP.In Amravati, MLC and Shiv Sena nominee Kiran Sarnaik faces a tough challenge from Aditi Pohare of the Congress. Daughter of former minister Harshavardhan Deshmukh, Pohare is also daughter-in-law of editor Prakash Pohare. Deshmukh is president of the Shri Shivaji Education Society, Amravati, which has a strong network of college and school teachers. Adding to Sarnaik’s problems, he also has to contend with the presence of party rebel and former MLC Shrikant Deshpande. In 2020, Sarnaik had defeated Deshpande in the polls. Pohare, too, must face the prospects of the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s nominee Dattatray Lahane swaying a section of MVA voters. The rivalry between allies BJP and Shiv Sena in districts like Buldhana may also play a role in deciding the outcome of this poll. The constituency is spread over Amravati, Akola, Yavatmal, Washim and Buldhana districts in Vidarbha. The Shinde Sena’s support for Sanap in Pune is attributed to the BJP opposing Sarnaik in Amravati.In the Aurangabad graduates seat, three-term NCP MLC Satish Chavan has secured a renomination against Dilip Ghuge of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Pratapsinh Patil of the Congress. Chavan managed to secure a breather after the withdrawal of BJP rebel M.K. Deshmukh from the fray.The BJP staved off a major embarrassment in the Nagpur graduates seat after it managed to placate rebel candidate Anil Sole, who had filed his nomination as an Independent against the party’s Sudhakar Kohale. Former MLC Girish Vyas, son of Pandit Baccharaj Vyas, a former president of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, quit his party positions to support Sole. The constituency has been a traditional BJP and Sangh Parivar bastion, and represented since 1958 by its stalwarts, including Bachharaj Vyas (1958-72), Gangadharrao Fadnavis (father of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis), and later Union minister Nitin Gadkari (1989-2014). In 2020, then MLC Anil Sole was dropped in favour of Nagpur Mayor Sandeep Joshi, who has been Fadnavis’s campaign manager, but lost to Abhijit Wanjari of the Congress.The contest then took on casteist hues, as questions were raised about why the BJP has always chosen a Brahmin to represent the seat. While Joshi is a Brahmin, Wanjari belongs to the influential OBC Teli community. This led to Joshi’s defeat. Realising the importance of the seat, Fadnavis and revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bavankule placated Sole and Vyas, after which they decided to participate in Kohale’s campaign.Vyas said he decided to break ranks since “the way in which the candidature had been declared was wrong”. “Many loyal workers have been left behind,” he complained, adding he decided to rejoin the party and work for Kohale after Fadnavis assured him that corrective action would be taken.A source from the Shiv Sena notes that parties like the Sena and the NCP are being forced to break ranks with their senior ally BJP at times just to emphasise their separate existence, and to “underline that they do not want to be subsumed by it (BJP)”. “This alliance between three parties is unwieldy like a three-legged race Hence, we and the NCP are being forced into posturing as we would otherwise be seen as having surrendered to the BJP,” he explains.A senior NCP leader, who declined to be named, says the rebellions in the ruling alliance can be attributed to the meltdown of the opposition MVA, with several leaders from opposition parties choosing to jump ship for greener pastures. “The opposition is shrinking while the ruling space is getting crowded. In this scenario, MVA parties are fighting to hold their own via such friendly contests,” he added.BOX:Seats and ContendersPune graduatesSmita Jadhav (BJP), Sunil Modi (Shiv Sena UBT), Harshada Deshmukh Jadhav (NCP SCP)Pune teachersJayant Asgaonkar (Congress), Kaustubh Gawade (BJP)Amravati teachersKiran Sarnaik (Shiv Sena), Aditi Pohare (Congress), Shrikant Deshpande (Ind), Dattatray Lahane (Shiv Sena UBT)Nagpur graduatesAbhijit Wanjari (Congress), Sudhakar Kohale (BJP)Aurangabad graduatesSatish Chavan (NCP), Dilip Ghuge (Shiv Sena UBT), Pratapsinh Patil (Congress)Subscribe to India Today Magazine- Ends