Maha Polls: The Dirt, Deceit, and Disruptions in the Dominant BJP

Even its worst detractor would agree that the BJP, dominating poll-bound Maharashtra for the past decade, is also the most organized party.

At the same time, the world’s largest party which has caused unprecedented disruption in the politics of the mild-mannered state is also seen as the one facing decay and division, due to the dominating character of the top central leadership and its politics of ‘my way or the highway’, and the ‘use and throw’ tactics.

The latest instance is when party leader Kirit Somaiya comes out with an angry letter that indirectly targets Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Though Somaiya soon attempted to downplay the whole issue of his declining membership of the BJP’s campaign committee in the state, the damage has been done, the crack has been revealed. It is not for nothing that some in the media dubbed it a “letter bomb”.

70-year-old Somaiya is no ordinary BJP leader, He is known in the state circles as a pointsman of the top two central leaders. For years he has been allegedly doing their bidding to bring down the reputations of the opposition stalwarts in the state including Ajit Pawar, and Chhagan Bhujbal, who is now with the ruling Maha Yuti, as well as of Uddhav Thackeray and family.

If one recalls any of the prominent opposition leaders before the formation of the BJP-dominated Maha Yuti government over two years back, they have been on the hit list of Somaiya, who was shrewdly used to project how those opposed to the BJP were full of corruption, malpractices and whatnot. They included former Chief Ministers, MPs and even MLAs many of whom are now in the BJP or are supporting it including former CMs Narayan Rane and Ashok Chavan.

Being a Chartered Accountant, Somaiya used the tricks of his trade to further his political career and was a member of the Lok Sabha twice including from 2014 to 2019 from his home turf of Mumbai and then, he was also heading the Housing Committee of the Lok Sabha, an indication of his closeness to the powers that be. So Somaiya was very important when the BJP embarked on the bulldozer strategy to muzzle the opposition in Maharashtra. Over the years, he attempted to make the road smooth for the BJP by targeting its opponents and painting them black.

Talk in political circles is that what made Somaiya angry was the failure of Modi-Shah to give him a suitable reward including a membership of the Rajya Sabha at least. When Piyush Goyal could get the safest Lok Sabha seat in Mumbai and a plum ministry at the Centre, Somaiya deserved better, goes the argument in political circles, right or wrong.

Somaiya is no saint. A case against him was registered at a Mumbai police station in April 2022 based on a complaint lodged by an ex-serviceman, who alleged Somaiya had collected more than ₹57 crore for saving the decommissioned naval aircraft carrier Vikrant. However, instead of depositing the amount to the Maharashtra governor's secretary's office, he misappropriated the funds, the complainant claimed. Last month, while disposing of the closure report in the cheating case against Somaiya and his son, a Mumbai court held that the Police have not probed what has been done with funds collected by them to save the ship.

BJP’s use and throw policy was also seen in the case of Eknath Khadse, who was the seniormost leader of the BJP ten years back before the emergence of Devendra Fadnavis as the top state leader with the blessings of the PM. Khadse, known in state political circles as Nathabhau hit such a bad patch with the ascendence of Fadnavis that he left the party for Sharad Pawar’s NCP when it was an undivided entity.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in April, Khadse had himself revealed that he had a meeting with BJP Chief JP Nadda and he expressed his desire to join the BJP and has plans to join the BJP in the presence of top BJP leaders in Delhi within the next 15 days. But reports last week had it that the prospects of Khadse's return to the BJP appear dim as there was no word on it from the party high command. Khadse claimed he was never keen to rejoin the party but also alleged that Fadnavis could be stalling his re-induction. Khadse is at daggers drawn with Fadnavis as also senior Maharashtra Minister Girish Mahajan, a Fadnavis loyalist who is Khadse’s rival in his native Jalgaon district. Speculation about the former BJP leader, currently with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP), returning to the saffron party intensified after it renominated his daughter-in-law Raksha Khadse as the 2024 Lok Sabha poll candidate and made her a Union Minister of State after she won. The latest is that Fadnavis says that a decision on the issue will be made after the Ganesh festival. The whole matter indicated that the high command too does not want to antagonise the Dy CM.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, the tallest of leaders of the BJP in the State is virtually persona non grata in matters of BJP in Maharashtra, so much so that it appears he is meticulously being projected as just an MP from Nagpur.

The tragedy is that the BJP is scared and suspicious about its trusted and tested leaders in the state. They are sidelined in the party because either the party's high command doesn't trust them or their cronies in the state feel they are a hurdle to their growth.

The greater tragedy is that though Atal Bihari Vajpayee is dead long back and nonagenarian L K Advani is far removed from the political scene, the party leaders who they had groomed are not trusted by Modi and Shah. It is claimed that Modi-Shah first marginalised and later split the Shiv Sena because Bal Thackeray was backing Sushma Swaraj to be the NDA's PM face. They are seeking 100 per cent loyalty and just yes men. The BJP does not need enemies.

Sunil Gatade was Associate Editor at PTI in New Delhi. Venkatesh Kesari was Assistant Editor with Asian Age, New Delhi. Both have covered major political parties as well as the Parliament since the eighties. Views expressed here are personal.