Maharashtra: Fake news, shaky alliances and double standards

Two stories masquerading as ‘news’ kicked up a minor storm in pollbound Maharashtra.

One claimed Uddhav Thackeray had reached out to BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis, the other said Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut had had a phone conversation with Union home minister Amit Shah.

Attributed to unnamed sources in the Congress, these were aired by a TV channel known to be friendly to the BJP. Several other media outlets fed on these juicy morsels that raised doubts about the MVA’s unity ahead of assembly elections on 20 November.

By the time Marathi and other regional channels crosschecked to learn this was fake news, the stories were all over national media, which continued to broadcast them for the next 24 hours.

Sudhir Suryawanshi, a senior journalist with the New Indian Express, tweeted that the largest party in the world had planted news it claimed had come from the second-largest party!

It looked dubious from the start, he said. Why would they meet when there was no love lost between the two and when Fadnavis’ own standing in his party is shaky? A pack of lies, declared Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut.

‘Fake News Alert!’ said the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi.

What the fake news succeeded in doing, however, was to divert public attention from the infighting in the ruling Mahayuti coalition.

At the time of going to press, the BJP had unilaterally announced 99 candidates, the Shiv Sena (Shinde) 45 and NCP (Ajit Pawar) 38. The fact that the coalition partners had failed to make a combined announcement spoke of the pulls and pressures within the Mahayuti.

On the other hand, at a joint press conference on 23 October, the MVA allies announced that discussions had been successfully concluded for 270 of 288 seats, and that the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) were all on board with the plan to share 85 seats each.

Nana Patole, Vijay Wadettiwar, Jayant Patil and Sanjay Raut were present at the press conference, minutes before which the Shiv Sena (UBT) released its first official list of candidates.

The BJP has never had a majority in Maharashtra. Its first chief minister was Fadnavis in 2014. Buoyed by its unexpected recent success in Haryana, the party has tried to create the narrative that its rivals in Maharashtra (the MVA) are divided and that its constituents are reaching out to the BJP to shore up their prospects.

Maharashtra is a complex state. The regional dynamics of Vidarbha, western Maharashtra, Konkan and Marathwada are different. Besides the ‘MaMu’ (Maratha–Muslim) factor, there are the Dalits, OBCs and Kunbis, each with their own issues and political ambitions.

The BJP has also named a few Shiv Sena (Shinde) rebels in its list, including from Eknath Shinde’s stronghold and home turf Thane. The party has announced candidates for Airoli and Kalyan East besides putting up SS (Shinde) rebel Ganesh Naik.

Fielding Shinde’s staunch opponent Sanjay Kelkar is an unmistakable sign that the BJP is keen to cut him to size. Not to be easily outdone, Shinde’s Sena has pitted Meenakshi Shinde against Kelkar.

The BJP would like nothing better than to emerge as the single largest party. The desire to sideline its allies is tempered only by the knowledge that it cannot do without them. Its first list of candidates triggered howls of protest, packed as it was with family members of BJP leaders, exposing the party’s hypocrisy about political dynasties.

Eknath Shinde knows that without a strong showing in these elections, his political future is doomed. He is fighting on two fronts—one against the BJP within the coalition and the other against the SS (UBT) that he splintered.

The advantage he had, courtesy the Election Commission of India — of using the original Shiv Sena symbol in the Lok Sabha election — will not carry forward. The Shiv Sena (UBT) has since had time to familiarise voters with its new symbol (the mashaal or torch).

Some commentators believe the fake news push boomeranged, making the BJP look like the party of schemers that it is, while garnering sympathy for Uddhav Thackeray.

Raining revdi not enough?

Everyone knows the Mahayuti government in the state has been raining pre-election doles over the past few months.

Besides the Ladki Bahin Yojana cash transfer to 40 per cent of the 4.6 crore women voters in the state, it wooed farmers by waiving the electricity bills of 44 lakh farmers using up to 7.5 horsepower pumps.

To address the falling prices of cotton and soyabean, the government announced a grant of Rs 5,000 per hectare to bridge the gap between MSP and market price.

Onion growers were wooed by removing export duty, which is expected to raise domestic onion prices next season, i.e., after the election. Granting Marathi the status of a classical language, a pending demand with the central government since 2013, was the icing on the cake.

To address the grievance that the double-engine sarkar was diverting investments and industries to Gujarat, the state government invited Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and signed an MoU with WEF. Schwab dutifully promised to help grow the Mumbai Metropolitan Region’s economy to $300 billion.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi went on record to say he wanted Mumbai to be the centre of global financial activity. Such gimmicks won’t erase the image Maratha voters have of the BJP being anti-Maharashtra. Unemployment and inflation continue unabated.

With women labourers not turning up to pick the cotton harvest, labour costs have gone up, adversely affecting farmers. Cash transfers to happy women are unlikely to be a game-changer by itself. Neither are subsidies as farmers continue to grapple with higher input costs and lower market prices.

The ECI’s double standards

The Election Commission of India’s directive to replace Jharkhand’s DGP (director general of police) Anurag Gupta for his alleged political bias and simultaneous refusal to remove politicallybiased Rashmi Shukla as DGP, Maharashtra, is a sore point.

Shukla is widely believed to be close to Devendra Fadnavis and was accused of tapping the phones of opposition leaders and Fadnavis’s rivals within the BJP. The Congress had urged the Commission to suspend Shukla as DGP until the election so as to ensure impartiality.

When questioned about the skewed decision, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar came up with the curious defence that since Shukla’s seniority had been determined by the UPSC, she could not be replaced. Since when has seniority determined immunity?