The Maharashtra local body elections seem to have given the ruling BJP a chance to kill two birds with one stone. In the state’s Konkan region, once dominated by the undivided Shiv Sena, the BJP has been working systematically to not only marginalise the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), but also minimise the influence of its Mahayuti ally Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Amid growing bitterness between the BJP and the Shinde Sena amid the local body elections – to be held for 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats in the first phase on December 2 – the BJP has deployed two of its leaders, state party chief Ravindra Chavan and Cabinet minister Ganesh Naik, to aggressively push the party’s agenda in the Konkan region, prompting Shinde to seek meetings with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda. BJP insiders said that Shah urged Shinde to “resolve state disputes through dialogue with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis”.
A senior Sena minister, requesting anonymity, said, “In the Konkan region, it is clear the BJP is not willing to concede space to the Shiv Sena. Ideally, we should have a free hand as Shinde played an important role in breaking the Thackeray-led Sena and ensured its rout in the 2024 Assembly polls.”
The minister said the BJP’s tactic in the local body elections is to “weaken” the Shinde Sena, which has already been worried about fighting on multiple fronts – against the BJP as well as a possibly united Sena (UBT) and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which also pose a formidable challenge to Shinde.
Importance of Konkan region
The scenic coastal region bounded by Western Ghats, which encompasses several key districts including Mumbai and Thane, Konkan accounts for 12 Lok Sabha seats and 75 Assembly constituencies. It has traditionally been known as a bastion of the undivided Sena.
While the BJP, Sena and Sena (UBT) each hold three Lok Sabha seats here, the Congress, Ajit Pawar-led NCP and Sharad Pawar-led NCP(SP) each has one seat.
In the Assembly, the BJP has the most seats in the Konkan region at 31, followed by the Sena at 22, Sena (UBT) at 11, NCP at four, Congress at three, and NCP(SP) at one.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Konkan was a fraught region for the BJP and Shinde Sena. In the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha seat, the BJP opted to field its leader and Union Minister Narayan Rane rather than cede the seat to the Sena. Rane managed to defeat the Sena (UBT)’s sitting MP Vinayak Raut – a result that not only proved its rationale to contest the seat, but also consolidated the party in what was once the undivided Sena’s stronghold.
But in doing so, the BJP also stumped its ally Shinde, who had made all attempts to secure the seat for his party. Despite the high drama – from verbal spats to Delhi visits to meet BJP leadership – the BJP claimed it.
Another outcome of the fight over Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg was Nilesh Rane’s exit from the BJP. Narayan Rane’s elder son Nilesh had been trying to secure the seat as a BJP candidate, but when the ticket was given to his father, he joined the Shinde Sena and won as its candidate in the subsequent Assembly elections.
Initially, Nilesh’s joining the Shinde Sena was seen as the BJP’s way to accommodate the Rane family’s three leaders, including Narayan Rane’s younger son and state minister Nitesh. But as the differences between the BJP and the Sena intensified, the Ranes appear to have got divided along the party lines.
Amid rising tensions during the local body polls, Nilesh Rane conducted a sting operation at a BJP worker’s house in Malvan on November 26, days after state BJP chief Ravindra Chavan’s visit to the Konkan region. Pointing to a bag of cash allegedly found at the BJP worker’s house, he accused the BJP of “distributing cash to voters” ahead of the December 2 polls.
However, Chavan refuted the charge, saying, “It is baseless and politically driven to tarnish the image of the BJP.”
Before Narayan Rane quit the undivided Sena, he was the party’s face in the Konkan region. In 2005, Rane joined the Congress after falling out with Uddhav, dealing a blow to the Sena. But disillusioned with the Congress for not making him the CM, Rane quit the party in 2017 to float his own outfit, Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha. Subsequently, he merged the party with the BJP and got elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2018. In 2020, he was also inducted into the Narendra Modi-led government.
The BJP found an aggressive leader in Rane who could take on Uddhav. Now, that mantle has been taken up by Nitesh, who has pushed the party’s Hindutva agenda, often with controversial statements on love jihad and vote jihad.
Ideologically, the Ranes represent different parties with common ideologies. Despite the common ground, particularly as the Mahayuti allies, the rift in their family and the deepening faultlines between the BJP and Sena have escalated their game of one-upmanship in the Konkan region.
When Nilesh made the allegation of cash distribution after his sting operation, Nitesh sent out a warning: “Hamam mein hum sab nange (In the bath, everyone is naked)”. He also said, “Under PM Modi and CM Fadnavis, the BJP has public support and does not have to stoop to unethical methods for votes.”
Hitting back, Nilesh alleged: “It is not a case in isolation. There are bags filled with cash in several BJP workers’ houses.”