The political drama in Maharashtra has surprised everyone. When the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress alliance was all set to form a government, the BJP orchestrated a midnight coup on Friday and formed a government on Saturday morning. The drama, which has been unfolding since the Assembly election results were announced on October 24, is not finished yet. We can see many twists and turns to the tale in the coming days. In this context, Onmanorama presents 10 stories that will help you understand every act in this drama well.
1. The perils of split verdict, writes Chanakya in Hindustan Times. The shifting alliances, the incongruity between pre-poll rhetoric and post-poll tactics, the defections, the pursuit of narrow self-interest, and the violations of process do not paint a pretty picture, says the writer.
2. Maha drama: The only ‘ism’ that matters in Indian politics is opportunism, writes Sagarika Ghose in Sunday Times of India. She says that politicians like Ajit Pawar — ever vulnerable because of cases against them — are perhaps far too compromised to take a stand on ideology. Graft allegations lead to compromise and allows the Centre to dictate terms through what is called the ‘dossier raj’. The enforcement directorate stands at the ready to play its increasingly salient role in democracy.
3. Pawar of silence: The test of Pawar’s proclaimed innocence is whether Supriya Sule becomes a Central minister within six months, writes Coomi Kapoor in The Indian Express.
4. In 10 steps, here’s how Modi and Shah managed the murder of democracy in Maharashtra, Siddharth Varadarajan writes in The Wire. “The two leaders knew they could not afford to let the Maharashtra government out of their hands and had prepared the ground, from day one, to ensure the BJP returned to power,” he argues.
5. The Print's Neelam Pandey and Shanker Arnimesh argue that BJP’s overnight coup didn’t happen overnight at all, and Sharad Pawar likely knew about it.
6. Why Hindutva couldn’t save BJP & Shiv Sena’s alliance in Maharashtra, writes Aditya Menon in The Quint.
7. A few days before the Congress decided to ally with Shiv Sena, Apoorvanand wrote this piece titled - A betrayal in the offing: Why Congress should give a second thought to allying with Shiv Sena – in The Indian Express. He said: “to see the Congress’s compromise with the Shiv Sena, which was the first to have proudly claimed responsibility for the demolition of the Babri Masjid, was the last thing one could have imagined. By considering doing so, it has made it clear that the language of Hindutva will now be the common political language.”
8. On November 15, even as Shiv Sena was holding discussions with NCP and Congress, Hindustan Times published this piece by Aashish Chandorkar titled 'Maharashtra: The impact of an unlikely coalition.' He argued that a Sena-NCP-Congress government will alter politics and administration, and affect each party’s fortunes.
9. On November 15, a few days before Congress decided to join the Shiv Sena-NCP coalition, The Print's Shivam Vij argued in his piece - Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress are walking into an Amit Shah trap in Maharashtra – that “an unnatural, unholy and unviable alliance will only help strengthen the BJP in the state.”
10. As Congress agreed to ally in principle with Shiv Sena and NCP to form a coalition government, The Print published this data-driven story, titled Congress-Sena-NCP? Data shows parties forming unnatural alliances don’t dump ideologies,
story by S Rukmini, on November 19. It established that long-standing alliances – Left Front in West Bengal, UDF in Kerala, Congress-DMK in Tamil Nadu – are all between ideologically similar allies.