Yet another opposition-ruled government has been toppled by the BJP. The MVA government in Maharashtra collapsed after rebellion by the Shiv Sena MLAs. Rebel MLA Eknath Shinde has become the chief minister and BJP leader Devender Fadnavis will be the new deputy chief minister. Though the earlier indication was that the BJP would only extend outside support to the new government, the party’s central leadership finally opted for direct participation with Devender Fadnavis taking oath as the deputy chief minister. There is now a clear pattern emerging in the party’s game plan: fuel rebellion and engineer defections in the ruling party or the coalition in a state and then strike at an opportune time to grab power. The list of states which have gone into the BJP’s kitty through this devious plan is long: Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, and Puducherry.
The Mumbai potboiler too carries the imprint of the toppling template mastered by the BJP over the years. There was a time when the central government used to dissolve the assemblies, particularly in opposition ruled states. Now the trend is to manoeuvre the MLAs of the ruling party and try to install a government of their choice. They will lure MLAs with all sorts of benefits on the plate. If the MLAs refuse, central agencies like CBI, ED, IT, etc, are used to harass MLAs and to make them succumb to the pressure of the BJP. The latest political drama, culminating in the resignation of Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister and the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, was clearly scripted and directed by the BJP.
The fact that rebel leader Shinde has been rooting for reviving the alliance with the BJP and ending what he called an ‘unnatural tie-up’ with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party proves that the entire operation was remote-controlled by the saffron party.