In my four decades of covering Indian politics, I have never seen such a grand ceremony as Devendra Fadnavis taking oath as Chief Minister last Thursday along with Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar.
Its significance is colour, fanfare, music, dance, and 40,000 people at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan swearing in “Deva Bhau” and Deputy Chief Ministers. Among those present at the star-studded event were Prime Minister Narendra Modi; Union Home Minister Amit Shah; Top BJP leaders, including its chief ministers; Chief Ministers of its allies; corporate honchos like the Ambanis; Bollywood stars; cricketers; and the saints.
This incident underscored the westernization of Indian politics that is underway and also its glamorization, which seem to be at odds with each other but perhaps not so much.
It also emphasized the emergence of women as a powerful constituency in the state. The new Chief Minister not only announced the continuation of the Meri Ladki Bahin Yojana soon after assuming office, he also took the oath of office as “Devendra Sarita Gangadhar Rao Fadnavis” adding his parents’ names. The Deputy Chief Ministers did the same. This is how they are described on the nameplates posted outside the office.
Gone are the days when swearing-in ceremonies were short and staid occasions in the confines of Raj Bhavan or Rashtrapati Bhavan. Now they are placed in the open between Aam Aadmi and Aam Aurat who are represented by elected representatives.
Earlier, on such occasions, garb was used to show dedication to service. This has given way to flamboyance and the best finery in which people get out as politics has become more about optics (both Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar wore pink jackets to convey messages to women voters).
The Prime Minister and Fadnavis naturally applauded when they came on stage but surprisingly, Shinde got a loud applause. Maharashtra has drafted a new “non-elite” coalition model where a CM and a Deputy Chief Minister can exchange posts in successive administrations, which was unthinkable in the past.
Shinde didn’t seem too excited at first. After taking the oath, the Prime Minister clapped his hands three times and only smiled on his face. Many believe that even though Shinde struck a hard deal for the Home Department, he wanted to ensure that urban development stayed with him. The new Chief Minister has made it clear that the Cabinet will be formed by December 16.
For Shinde, the applause was about the success of the subaltern. It was about his rise from humble beginnings, clawing his way to the top, and managing to control himself. She became a Maratha leader of consequence in the last two years and became the “darling” of women voters who decided to roll out the Ladki Bahin Yojana in time for the Assembly elections and not for the Lok Sabha elections.
“The Last Stand”
Positioning himself differently from the “inaccessible” Uddhav Thackeray, with whom he broke ranks in 2022, Shinde opened the CM’s residence, “Varsha”, to commoners who could walk in, listen and be served tea or food. And, he opened a fund for social welfare schemes. Although his party won 57 assembly seats against Uddhav’s 20, this may not be a condemnation of the Sena vs Sena saga.
Aware that he may lose his core pro-Hindu constituency to Shinde, Uddhav has already “corrected course”. A close aide of his justified the demolition of the Babri Masjid, provoking protests from allies, and the Sena (UBT) leader may walk out of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The final battle for the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is around the corner. To underline how important the BMC is to Uddhav, of his party’s 20 assembly seats, 10 came from Mumbai.
The BJP also sees the BMC as the “last bastion” that must be conquered to push forward plans for “urban renewal” and “slum redevelopment”. This is also the reason why Shinde is treated with kid gloves. The BJP needs his help to capture the civic body and further weaken Uddhav’s hold on Maharashtra.
Once again ‘overconfident’
Although no party has a clear majority in the Legislative Assembly, political stability lies in arithmetic.
The BJP is just one step away from capturing power on its own if the situation gets sticky with allies. The BJP, which won 132 seats with the support of a dozen party members and four independents who won under the banner of the Sena or the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), could be home and dry even without the support of its allies. This could rein in both Shinde and Ajitdada.
The swearing-in ceremony showed a subtle change in the body language of BJP leaders as they took to the dais – oozing confidence – to greet allies N Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar and Chirag Paswan on whose support they depend. center. The Maharashtra result has made the June 4 verdict a thing of the past.
Another notable aspect of the ceremony was the thunderous applause for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as the attendees were introduced one by one on the stage. Like his politics or not, this shows Adityanath’s growing popularity beyond UP.
There was a time, in 2018, when some in RSS circles spoke of Adityanath and Fadnavis as the two leaders who would play a “national role” in the future. But then, with Adityanath taking over in his own hands, Fadnavis’ fortunes took a nosedive before he returned to the top and he is back in the reckoning.
Days before he took over as CM, Fadnavis called himself a “modern-day Abhimanyu” who knew how to break the cycle. He succeeded in doing this with the help of Delhi and Nagpur. But the battle remains to be won and the tasks he has set himself — such as linking rivers to create jobs and tackling drought — depend a lot on how he gets along with BJP allies, allies and those in the opposition. , they can be weak.
(Neerja Chaudhary, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express has covered the last 11 Lok Sabha elections. She is the author of How Prime Ministers Decide)