It is a fresh start for Devendra Fadnavis in his third term as chief minister of Maharashtra when he can look forward to a longer “innings” than in his short-lived second term which began under a cloud of manipulation and midnight manoeuvring and ended swiftly. It is with an absolute mandate of the people that his government starts afresh with the BJP alliance having swept 230 of 288 seats with his party the dominant partner among the triumvirate of BJP, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP.
The signs of stability are solid this time than in a preceding period of about five years of uncertain alliance politics, opportunistic coalitions and parties splitting. The swearing-in of the chiefs of the new government also came after a period of ambiguity with Mr Shinde said to be reluctant to take the step down from CM to deputy CM, but which he had to accept to keep his finger on the pulse of Maharashtra politics after having personally brought down the Uddhav Thackeray regime and then stolen a march over his party in the recent Assembly polls.
The management team, ushered in the presence of business and Bollywood celebrities, is the same at the top with Mr Fadnavis as CM joined by Mr Shinde and Ajit Pawar as deputy CMs but only after the BJP had had to learn a few lessons along the way in coalition politics and the art of managing a diversity of opinions and priorities. The administering of the country’s biggest state in terms of GSDP whose metropolis is the financial capital of the nation itself will not come without challenges.
Going forward, there may be further testing of the coalition dharma, but the team has a record of having managed the state capably enough for 30 months under Mr Shinde’s stewardship. The sharing of ministerial berths is yet to be sorted and that could be the first big test for the parties and their three leaders who have formed the government.
In a state of clashing caste and community interests, Mr Shinde may have played his hand cleverly when he was at the helm. However, the challenge of dealing with a demand for reservation for Marathas that may never die down and other pressures that are bound to come up after the latest election cycle brought up issues like a demand for a caste census and changes in quotas is bound to make the matter of managing societal aspirations thorny.
Cash handout under the popular Ladki Bahin Yojana, which is to go up to Rs 2,100 from Rs 1,500 a month, will not come without stretching the exchequer. Mr Fadnavis has already assured that the resources would be found for the raise in stipend for underprivileged women. This is the new reality for the BJP which may have liked to believe it is one party that does not do freebies as liberally as the others who promise loads of them at poll time but discovered the pain of delivery only when they gained power.
