BRACING FOR TOUGH TIMES

The Shinde-Fadnavis government lives another day, but the CM is yet to come out of the BJP’s shadow, check internal dissidence, and neutralise sympathy for the Sena’s Thackeray faction

- Dhaval Kulkarni

Even when everything seems to be going right for Eknath Shinde, the sense of unease refuses to leave him. He may have been made chief minister, but he has to constantly battle attempts by the BJP to undermine him, and shake off the perception of being in power but not in authority. Again, the Election Commission of India (ECI) may have granted his faction the status of the official Shiv Sena and also allowed them to retain the party’s bow and arrow symbol, but it’s the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction that is garnering all the sympathy. And on May 11, a five-judge constitution bench, headed by the Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, offered his government a reprieve by refusing to restore status quo ante and reinstate Thackeray as chief minister since he had voluntarily resigned a day before he was asked to prove his majority on the floor of the House. But it is by no means the end of Shinde’s troubles.