The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has seen some loud internal disputes in the last few weeks over whether the alliance should have a face announced as their candidate for the chief minister’s position before the election. Instead of discussing this matter internally the alliance constituents chose to take this issue to the public sphere and it became publicly known that Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray was keen that the alliance should have a “Chief Ministerial Face” announced in advance, while the other two members of the alliance, Congress and Sharad Pawar’s NCP, were very uncomfortable with the idea. Looking at the history of elections it is obvious that there are hardly any benefits of making an announcement about the CM face in advance and many asked why Uddhav Thackeray kept insisting that such an announcement should be made.
India follows the parliamentary democratic system which is based on the British model of political parties fighting elections and whichever party gets a majority in Parliament (or state Assembly in India’s case) forming the government under the leadership of one leader chosen by the elected representatives of that party. That leader assumes charge as Prime Minister at the central level or Chief Minister at state level. Uddhav Thackeray’s argument is that if the alliance goes by the principle of the CM’s position being given to that alliance partner which wins the maximum seats, there is sabotage likely within the alliance and constituents work towards ensuring that the other partner in the alliance does not win more seats in the Assembly compared to themselves. “We had a bad experience with the BJP, we decided that the CM position will go to us or them based on who gets more seats and then we saw them pulling our candidates down and helping the Opposition to defeat our candidate. If this is to be avoided we have to announce the CM face in advance,” Uddhav said at a rally in presence of Congress and Sharad Pawar’s NCP leaders on the dais.
Traditionally in India for decades, no political party ever announced the chief ministerial face in advance. The Congress ruled in Maharashtra and many states for decades. The party never said that one particular leader will be their “CM face” ahead of the elections. In 1995 for the first time the saffron combine, Shiv Sena and BJP came to power in the state. They too did not announce any CM face in advance before the elections. Shiv Sena Chief Balasaheb Thackeray chose Manohar Joshi’s name and he was given charge of the government, but the entire process happened after the results came out. The Congress followed the same system from 1999 to 2014 when they won the Assembly elections, choosing their CM after the polls results were out. The BJP too which won by a decent majority of 123 seats in the Assembly in 2014 polls , had not announced any “CM face” before the polls. The BJP high command sent JP Nadda came to Mumbai as observer after the polls and in a meeting of MLAs it was decided that Devendra Fadnavis would take oath as chief minister. Only in the 2019 polls for the first time did the BJP announce that Fadnavis would be their CM face if they got a majority. In the recent Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka or any other Assembly polls, the BJP did not announce any CM face ahead of the polls.
In the upcoming 2024 Assembly polls in Maharashtra the BJP-led Mahayuti has not announced any “CM face”. They have announced that the election will be fought under Eknath Shinde’s leadership but have not said that Shinde will be CM if Mahayuti wins a majority. It is obvious that the BJP is pitching to fight a maximum number of seats among the Mahayuti alliance constituents, and would be wanting to win maximum seats and have their own leader as CM in the next term.
So why is only Uddhav Thackeray insisting that a face should be projected in advance as CM candidate on behalf of the MVA? Uddhav Thackeray just like his father Balasaheb Thackeray always prefered to not hold any political position (such as CM position) himself but control things from the back seat. This has been his method at Mumbai Municipal corporation where Shiv Sena ruled close to three decades and in the state Assembly too. But it seems that some experiences Uddhav went through when the MVA government was in power, and especially some things that have come to light recently about what the Opposition was planning during that period, have led him to think that he needs to be in the driver’s seat and not depend on any other leader.
However, the Congress believes in the philosophy that if one name is announced as CM face it puts off other leaders and they lose interest in the campaign. So the Congress party has always followed a system of keeping the mystery alive about who will finally hold the top position. If five leaders are working as a team on the elections they should all feel that the chance of them becoming the CM is alive till the last moment. This perhaps is even more applicable when three or more parties are fighting as alliance partners from both sides. If the alliance announces one leader’s name in advance, his party may be excited about it but the other two constituents of the alliance would lose interest in fighting the polls because in the present administrative system in Maharashtra almost all powers are concentrated in the hands of the Chief Minister.
It seems that in the past few days the MVA partners have finally been able to convince Uddhav Thackeray that a CM face need not be announced before the polling happens and that such an announcement could actually be damaging for the MVA. After a couple of weeks of debate and disputes over the issue Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut finally said on Monday that his party has now agreed that no CM face should be announced as of now, and the matter seems to have come to rest.
Rohit Chandavarkar is a senior journalist who has worked for 31 years with various leading newspaper brands and television channels in Mumbai and Pune
Maharashtra: Shy Of Naming CM Face, MVA & Mahayuti Bury Heads In Sand
