Uddhav loses, Shinde rises, Fadnavis gains: The Shiv Sena 'remote control' changes hands
India Today
The Maharashtra political crisis has ended with what is the biggest setback to the Thackeray family in the history of Shiv Sena since it was founded in 1966.
It's a day of reckoning for first-time former Chief Minister Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, as he calls himself. The day and date will remain etched in his memory: Thursday, June 30, 2022. The day he saw his government, his CM's post, and, most tragic of all, the party his father founded slip out of his power, so to speak.
Like the Greek tragic emperor Julius Caesar, Uddhav seems to be the fallen hero in the Maharashtra drama, let down by his own partymen. Brutus, Eknath Shinde pulled the rug from under his feet and co-conspired with Devendra Fadnavis, the former CM from the Bharatiya Janata Party. But that is for another time.
Today is all about the tragic fallen hero, Uddhav and the widely held belief among analysts that Eknath Shinde will most likely be a puppet chief minister. For the 'remote' has slipped out of the clutches of the Thackeray family.
The reference to 'remote control' is central to the founder of Shiv Sena, the late Balasaheb Thackeray. Balasaheb wielded full control over his party and moreover, the BJP-Shiv Sena government. National leaders danced to Thackeray's whims and fancies.
In fact, on November 22, 1995, then Enron International chairman Kenneth Lay and the company's chief executive officer Rebecca Mark visited India to negotiate with the BJP-Sena government. During the visit, they completely ignored the then CM Manohar Joshi (from the BJP) and instead met with Bal Thackeray. And that wasn't all. A miffed Joshi also had to hear Thackeray saying: "Yes, I am the remote control."
Today Uddhav has seen this very remote slip out of his hands. And worst of all, that remote seems to have gone into the hands of BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, something which the late Thackeray would not have taken kindly to. A rather unforgiving BJP, which likely has not overcome the insults of all those years, will want to ensure that the remote is never given back to the Thackerays, and Uddhav risks losing the reins of the party.
This is a double tragedy for Uddhav, who is the first member of the Thackeray family to dare to become a CM and, moreover, win a trust vote on the Assembly floor (when he took oath as CM). For the man who is the son of Bal Thackeray, this seemed like a courageous move. What is even more interesting is how most of the elite and middle-class citizens who would not have touched the Thackeray family with a barge pole were heard paying paid rich tributes to Uddhav Thackeray on the night he resigned.
