RUMBLINGS IN THE MAHAYUTI

DISAGREEMENTS OVER SEAT-SHARING ARE STIRRING RESENTMENT AMONG THE THREE CONSTITUENTS OF THE RULING ALLIANCE. WILL THE ALLIES CONQUER DIFFERENCES IN TIME FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION?

- DHAVAL S. KULKARNI

TWO IS COMPANY AND THREE A CROWD, they say. It is something the three-party 'Mahayuti' in Maharashtra is discovering, as pulls and pressures within the grand alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are threatening to come to a head just before the general election.

The first major embarrassment came when chief minister Eknath Shinde went by his script and announced incumbent MP Hemant Patil's name from Hingoli in the first list of candidates and then, following opposition from the local BJP unit, had to replace him with Baburao Kadam Kohalikar. Patil was among the 13 MPs who quit the parent Sena along with Shinde in June 2022, and had been reportedly assured of a renomination. To placate him, his wife Rajshri has now been nominated from neighbouring Yavatmal-Washim, in place of five-term Sena MP Bhavana Gawali Patil. That, in turn, has upset Bhavana, who has clout among the local Kunbis, though she has said she will campaign for the party. Meanwhile, BJP leader Shivaji Jadhav was not mollified with Kohalikar either, as he wanted Hingoli for himself, and has rebelled. Shinde has also replaced Ramtek MP Krupal Tumane with Congress turncoat Raju Parwe, reportedly at the BJP's behest. The BJP has also managed to wrest the traditional Shiv Sena stronghold of Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg from the Shinde Sena, nominating Union minister Narayan Rane over state industries minister Uday Samant's brother Kiran, who was set for a contest. Rane will take on incumbent MP Vinayak Raut of the Residuary Sena (UBT), led by Uddhav Thackeray.

THE CRACKS ARE SHOWING