Maharashtra: RSS now in the playing eleven

The compulsion to win in Maharashtra is so high that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has come forward to run the BJP’s campaign in the impending Assembly election expected to be held in October. Rumours to this effect were confirmed when representatives of the RSS participated in BJP core committee meetings in both Mumbai and Pune, which were preceded by clandestine meetings at RSS headquarters in Nagpur between RSS leaders and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

A senior BJP leader conceded that the RSS appreciates the importance and urgency of a BJP government in the state. Maharashtra is too large to lose, and with Mumbai being the financial capital of the country, holding power in the state is crucial.

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha election, though the BJP won just nine of the 48 seats, the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition established a lead in 130 Assembly segments as opposed to the MVA or INDIA bloc’s lead in 150 of the 288 segments. With the halfway mark in the state Assembly being 145, it could be anybody’s election, he pointed out. Clearly, the RSS and the BJP would pull out all the stops to bridge the gap.

It seems there is no unanimity yet on how to run the campaign. According to BJP sources, the RSS believes that conditions are not favourable for the party. It has apparently advised the BJP against contesting the election on Modi’s guarantees or the prime minister’s image, which has taken a beating in Maharashtra.

It is not clear, however, if the state BJP can persuade the party leadership in Delhi to accept this. In the midst of such speculation, Fadnavis and his wife had a much-photographed meeting with the prime minister in New Delhi, fuelling speculation that Fadnavis is a frontrunner for the post of BJP’s next national president. J.P. Nadda’s term ended on 30 June and he has since been inducted into the Union ministry.

The same sources aver that the RSS would also like the ruling coalition to dump Ajit Pawar and his NCP, at whose door they lay the blame for the Lok Sabha debacle in Maharashtra. Having hitherto accused him of corruption, the credibility of both party and prime minister has been dented by inducting Ajit Pawar as deputy chief minister and finance minister. The Sangh feels that was a big mistake.

If the coalition cannot dump him after his miserable performance in the Lok Sabha election, the very least the RSS wants from Ajit is public avowal and support of Hindutva. The Sangh finds Ajit Pawar’s indifference to Hindutva suspicious, and believes it makes him likely to jump ship at any time.

The confusion in BJP ranks regarding seat-sharing is palpable. Some BJP leaders like Chandrakant Patil have been braving it out by saying the party would, if necessary, contest the Assembly election alone and put up candidates in all 288 constituencies. The same leaders on other occasions say whatever be the seat-sharing, BJP would contest the election as part of the Mahayuti coalition.

The Shiv Sena (Shinde), a key member of the coalition, has indeed emerged stronger after the general election, having won seven Lok Sabha seats compared to the BJP’s nine. It is now flexing its muscles and staking its claim to contest in as many as 130 of the 288 constituencies. It has also gone ahead and appointed its own people in the posts of constituency-in-charge.

The RSS also wants the BJP to draw lessons from the electoral reverses in the Lok Sabha and pay more attention to social engineering. It has offered to work in those constituencies where the BJP is weak.

With Marathas, Dalits and Muslims lining up against the party, its advice is to consolidate its support base among the OBCs in the state and get much more vocal and proactive in playing the Hindu card.

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Publicity unlocks the coffers

The BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP (Ajit Pawar) government is going all out to woo the people. The state budget presented last month contained a large number of freebies and a surfeit of revdis (doles). A slew of direct cash transfer schemes to women were announced in the hope of replicating Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s electoral success in Madhya Pradesh last year. Even the name (‘Laadli Behna scheme’) was retained.

Doubts were immediately voiced about the ability of the state government to sustain these cash transfers over a long period. The Maharashtra government’s public debt is Rs 7.11 lakh crore, on which it has to pay an annual interest of Rs 48,578 crore.

It was pointed out that the infrastructure in the state is in a shambles. Roads are riddled with more potholes than ever, and there seems to be no money to repair them. Students in government schools are yet to get the books and uniforms they were promised. Can the state government really sustain the schemes, or are they simply desperate electoral jumlas (rhetoric) designed to win the Assembly election?

Finance minister Ajit Pawar was quick to allay such doubts, claiming that funds were indeed available and that provisions had been made in the budget. He reassured doubters that money would start flowing from August onwards.

A government notification bears him out. The state government has allotted as much as Rs 270 crore to publicise the populist schemes. The catch is that this amount will be spent in the next two months before the election. Outdoor advertisers, media, consultants and agencies are looking forward to the Diwali bonanza coming their way — provided, of course, that the bills are paid in time.

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Mystery of the Laapata Ladies

Even as the state government is tripping over itself in an attempt to help laadli behnas (darling sisters) with monthly cash doles, a PIL (public interest litigation) filed before the Bombay High Court has caused considerable embarrassment.

Ex-serviceman from Sangli and state government employee Shahji Jagtap has appealed for the investigation into the disappearance of over one lakh women in Maharashtra since 2019 (35,990 in 2019, 30,089 in 2020 and 34,763 in 2021). Jagtap’s own daughter, a college student, went missing in 2021. He filed a complaint at Sanjay Nagar police station, with no luck.

Three years later, he managed to reach the court with the help of lawyer Manjari Parsanis. Jagtap says the police insisted his daughter must have eloped.

Ambadas Danve, leader of the opposition in the Legislative Council, had claimed in a letter to the home minister and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis that 70 women and teenage girls were being reported missing every day. The state women’s commission had taken up the issue two years ago, believing these women to be victims of human trafficking.

The minister for women and child development Mangal Prasad Lodha had admitted to 500 disappearances and announced the formation of special squads to help trace them. With 1.91 lakh women and minors reported missing in Maharashtra (as per the National Crime Records Bureau), the state machinery has not only failed distraught parents like Jagtap, it has let down its darling daughters, sisters and mothers, big time.