Road to 2024 | In saga Maharashtra and Devendra Fadnavis, the many messages by BJP | Political Pulse News,The Indian Express
The way the political drama unravelled on the last day – June 30 – with the announcement of both Shinde as Chief Minister and Devendra Fadnavis as Deputy CM, was undoubtedly unexpected for not just the BJP support base but also RSS cadre.
With the recent political developments in Maharashtra, culminating in the installation of the Eknath Shinde-led government of BJP MLAs and Shiv Sena rebels, the BJP has again sent several messages intended at the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The way the political drama unravelled on the last day – June 30 – with the announcement of both Shinde as Chief Minister and Devendra Fadnavis as Deputy CM, was undoubtedly unexpected for not just the BJP support base but also RSS cadre. The consensus was that Fadnavis, having been denied the post in November 2019 and seen as the prime mover behind the Sena coup, would finally receive what he saw as his due and become CM again. Not only did the national leadership make him step aside for Shinde, Fadnavis was publicly made to stand down on his decision to not join the government and accept the Deputy CM post.
While a section of the BJP was angry over the “humiliation” Fadnavis was subjected to, with some even expressing it publicly, the party was working to a plan.
A part of it is a rethink on the BJP strategy to choose leaders from non-dominant castes in states as CM – a move in place since the 2014 win at the Centre, that had the backing of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Hence, Manohar Lal Khattar in Haryana, Fadnavis in Maharashtra and Raghubar Das in Jharkhand, from outside the Jat, Maratha and tribal communities that dominate the states, respectively. With Modi at the peak of his popularity, the message was that the party need not depend on trite formulas like dominant castes.
However, despite expanding its membership and reach, the BJP had gone on to lose power in Maharashtra and Jharkhand in 2019, and could form a government in Haryana only with the help of the Jannayak Janata Party.
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