December 15, 2024 02:00 IST
First published: 15 December 2024 02:00 Indian Time
Residents of the uber-exclusive Mount Pleasant Road in Mumbai’s Malabar Hills, including Birlas, Ruiyas, General Managers of the Central Railway and aristocratic Parsis, whose families have lived here for over a century. Neighbor Eknath Shinde to clear the CM’s bungalow of rain… Shinde’s arrival as CM turned Sobo’s tony Malabar Hill upside down. Apart from Barsha, Shinde also occupied two other government bungalows in the neighbourhood, Aragdut and Nandanvan. As a hard-working grassroots politician, Shinde’s house is open day and night for visitors from across the state to seek redressal of their grievances. They were all hospitably served cups of tea and potato buns. Visitors carelessly tossed around their paper plates and cups, shouting slogans filled the narrow streets and walls plastered with political posters. Police stopped traffic every time the former chief minister’s convoy went up and down the hill. Visitors to houses and apartments on the narrow Mount Pleasant Road – where incidentally Jinnah’s dilapidated bungalow, South Court, has been vacant for half a century – were directed to park on adjacent streets, adding to the traffic jam. In desperation, last year, the Malabar Hill Residents’ Association asked state assembly speaker Rahul Narvekar to intervene, but he expressed helplessness. The residents’ tale of woe was that the 12,000-square-foot heritage bungalow had seen chief ministers come and go since the mid-1960s — including Sajjan Vasantrao Patil and Shinde’s predecessors Uddhav Thackeray and Devendra Fadnavis. All Chief Ministers lived peacefully with their neighbours, but Shinde was a different ball game altogether.
LoP, not the party chief
Congress members were surprised to see Rahul Gandhi’s jovial mood after consecutive defeats in Haryana and Maharashtra. When asked by a senior leader at a party meeting about the reason for his good humor, Gandhi explained that he believed in being sad in victory and celebrating in defeat. He said that Lord Shiva is testing the party’s determination and penance for 2029. However, his party men are worried about Gandhi’s approach in the two recent assembly elections. He avoided meeting senior party figures to address his grievances, refused to speak personally to Congress rebels and asked them to resign, relied heavily on poster Sunil Kanugolu despite his disastrous track record, and insisted on making Adani a major election issue. More pressing matters. Gandhi hands over most of the affairs of the Congress organization to General Secretary KC Venugopal, who is only too happy to alienate his boss. In fact, now that Priyanka is an MP, Venugopal is keen to keep her under his wing as well.
Gandhi believed that his main role was now that of leader of the opposition and that mundane party issues should be left to others. Since 23 senior Congressmen were blackballed in 2020 after a letter to Sonia Gandhi requesting an introspection in the party was leaked to the media, no senior Congress leader is willing to ring the cat and openly take on Venugopal. But some privately applaud the recent campaign by India’s lawmakers to question Gandhi’s suitability to lead the bloc. In fact, they seem to shoot over the shoulders of their allies. Mallikarjun Kharge’s recent advice to party workers to stick to the realities and local issues like inflation, unemployment and rural distress etc. and not rely on national issues and national leaders to win elections for them could actually be directed at him. Notably, when Kharge recently requested a one-on-one meeting with his boss, he insisted on Venugopal being present.
Fadnavis is one
There has been a big change in the personality of NCP leader Ajit Pawar. The formerly timid, unsmiling Maratha chieftain was smiling and talking while interacting with reporters in Delhi recently. Pawar’s turnaround may be partly due to his election consultant Naresh Arora’s advice to present a soft, smiling face, but, after the Maharashtra victory, he has finally stepped out of the shadow of uncle Sharad Pawar. Ajith and Devendra Fadnavis make a comfortable couple, leaving Eknath Shinde out of the charm circle. Incidentally, some vested interests in the BJP secretly encouraged Shinde to provoke and claim the Chief Ministership. In fact, Fadnavis’ elevation as CM was never in doubt. For one, the RSS fully supported Swayamsevak from the Nagpur suburbs, who graciously and dutifully stepped down for Shinde when the party first asked him to do so. The BJP knows that Fadnavis’s Brahmin caste is not really a loss, as the Mahayuti is heavily sided with the Marathas, whom the OBCs resent. Moreover, the BJP is determined to maintain a tight grip on Maharashtra, the only cash-rich state other than Gujarat that is not ruled by the opposition, like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
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