Rebel Eknath Shinde holds ground despite ‘sympathy wave’

MUMBAI: Maharashtra’s ambitious and street-smart CM Eknath Shinde had shown time and again that he could not be written off. After being suppressed and passed over by Uddhav Thackeray, Shinde struck back by splitting Shiv Sena and taking it over.
On allying with BJP to form the government, he managed to wrest the top post, leaving a stunned Devendra Fadnavis to settle as his deputy.His direct proximity to the BJP brass in Delhi led to a sweet deal for the Lok Sabha polls: 15 seats compared with four for BJP’s other ally, NCP.
The verdict will bring vindication and relief. Having won 7 seats, Shinde’s party has a better strike rate than BJP in Maharashtra (which won 10 of the 28 seats it contested). The verdict may well mean he continues to hold his bargaining position and can lead the Mahayuti alliance ahead of state assembly polls due in October.
While the result has not shown that he is a claimant to the reins of the “real Shiv Sena”, it may not exactly cause an exodus from Shinde’s party towards the resurgent Shiv Sena (UBT) ahead of assembly polls. In the 13 direct contests with Sena (UBT), Shinde’s party fared better in at least five— Buldhana, Hatkanangale, Kalyan, Maval, and Mumbai North West. Thackeray’s bruising campaign, pitching “loyalists” against “traitors”, did not entirely work.
In Kalyan, his son Shrikant Shinde won by over 2 lakh votes, while in Thane his nominee Naresh Mhaske was leading by over 2 lakh votes.
“Shrikant Shinde won with a record margin. People have voted for the development work done by PM Modi in 10 years and our Maha yuti govt. Many seats were lost by a very thin margin and may be because the candidates were declared late. We will rethink these issues and rectify our mistakes,” Shinde said.
For Shinde, having outperformed Ajit Pawar’s NCP, he has now shown his party is BJP’s more valuable ally.