The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra got a rude shock yesterday (June 20) after the BJP's clean sweep in the legislative council elections. This comes after BJP outperformed the MVA in the Rajya Sabha polls last week.

Last night's political developments further added to MVA's jitters, when Urban Development Minister and a prominent Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde along with 24 more MLAs went incommunicado

As per sources, these MLAs will join the BJP, posing a threat to MVA's majority. The majority mark in the Maharashtra Assembly is 144. The BJP has 106 while the Shiv Sena has 55, NCP 53, and Congress 44. MVA, as of now, has 153 MLAs. If 25 rebel MLAs quit the coalition, proving the majority is going to be a herculean task for MVA.

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The timing of this political development is also important as civic elections are due in a host of major cities in the state, including Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, and Thane. This includes elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest civic body in India.

For Shiv Sena, the Mumbai region is the political epicentre and the majority of its MLAs comes from this region. Also, BMC has been single-handedly run by Shiv Sena for over three decades since 1989, and winning civic elections is a prestige issue for the party.

The last BMC elections in 2017 made things difficult for Shiv Sena as thre latte could manage to win it by only one seat. The BJP emerged as the second-biggest party. But at that time, BJP and Shiv Sena were in an alliance, so Fadnavis declared that he will support Shiv Sena.

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But now the situation is different, with the BJP claiming that its vote bank has widened. Political experts believe that Shiv Sena, which barely managed to win last time, is not in a comfortable situation. Also, if MVA loses majority on the Assembly floor, Shiv Sena's position in terms of winning the BMC elections will take a big hit.

The BMC elections are scheduled post-monsoon. With the current political turmoil unfolding in Maharashtra, will Shiv Sena be able to retain BMC? Or will Shiv Sena lose this prestige battle to BJP? All of this will become clear once the dust of the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra settles.

First Published:Jun 21, 2022 6:31 PM IST