|
STATES,
MAHARASHTRA
Survival
Instinct
Few would
have expected these old rivals to be brothers in arms, but the compulsions
of coalition politics and the fear of saffron keep them together
By
V. Shankar Aiyar
 |
| Vilasrao
Deshmukh (CM) and Chhagan Bhujbal (Deputy CM) |
Less
than five years ago they were virtually at loggerheads. Both were in the
same party, lost their seats in the assembly polls and were fighting for
seats to the Legislative Council. One fought as an independent, lost by
two votes and was thrown out of the party while the other went on to become
leader of the opposition in the Upper House. The winner: Chhagan Bhujbal.
The loser: Vilasrao Deshmukh. That was April 1996.
Deshmukh
returned to the Congress only to see Bhujbal leave with Sharad Pawar to
form the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in May 1999. The factions then
fought an acrimonious poll campaign before coming together in a coalition.
Deshmukh bagged the chief minister's post while Bhujbal became his deputy.
The stage seemed set for round three. But unlike the Shiv Sena's Manohar
Joshi and BJP's Gopinath Munde, who delighted the media and the Opposition
with regular spats, to the surprise of many this duo has not obliged.
At least part of the reason for the success of their relationship lies
in familiarity with each other. Says Deshmukh: "We are no strangers
to each other." More critical is the arithmetic that brought the
NCP and Congress together. Neither can do without the other. And that
is true both for the coalition and the duo's equation.
A senior
BJP leader uses a cricketing analogy to explain the bond. "In the
united Congress, neither would have got a chance to bat. Now neither will
lose his wicket easily." Deshmukh shrugs off the analogy but agrees,
"We will not give up our wickets. We know the dangers of allowing
the Sena-BJP to come to power." Bhujbal echoes, "Our credibility
is at stake. Having fought to release the state from the Sena-BJP grip
we don't want any errors to enable them to return to power. I won't let
ego come between us and give the saffron combine a chance."
Also, the
errors might help carping competitors in unseating them. If Deshmukh has
Ranjit Deshmukh and Govindrao Adik snapping at him for his proximity to
Pawar, Bhujbal has had to battle NCP giants Padamsinh Patil and Vijaysinh
Mohite Patil. Which is perhaps why they closed ranks at critical junctures
like the Thackeray arrest fiasco. As Sena MLAs wrought havoc in the House,
a distraught Bhujbal took shelter in the chief minister's ante-chamber
and offered to quit. Deshmukh waved him off and actually got the Cabinet
to endorse Bhujbal's decision. There have been many other instances of
camaraderie.
Any Formula
Will Do:
When the penurious state Government had no money to pay cotton farmers
in Vidharbha (a Congress bastion) it was Bhujbal who called on Sharad
Pawar to bail out the state with funds from the NCP-controlled Maharashtra
State Cooperative Bank. Similarly when an amendment in the Cooperatives
Act hurt NCP members, Deshmukh found a way out. When Bhujbal couldn't
get Central forces for Thackeray's arrest, it was Deshmukh who lobbied
with Congress chief ministers for additional troops. Interestingly, there
is no set formula or time set aside for conflict resolution. They simply
use the phone, walk into each other's office or use the hours on flights
or at functions to sort out issues.
Cooperation
at the government level is easy but what do they do when faced with party
rivalry? Every time a Congress minister hosts a function the local NCP
man is affected (and vice versa) and this often leads to a series of spats
between party workers. After such fights the duo crafted a solution: at
every government function both NCP and Congress candidates now find place
on the dais. However, at party functions they are free to criticise each
other. If Deshmukh has had to put up with NCP state chief Babanrao Pachpute
inducting anti-Deshmukh men into his party, NCP ministers have suffered
MPCC chief Govindrao Adik's repeated trashing of the NCP. But when it
comes to the sena-BJP the factions close ranks as they did by not putting
up candidates against each other for the Mumbai municipal byelections.
More than
the Democratic Front's survival, friends and foes are surprised at the
personal rapport between the two. A day after Miss Universe Lara Dutta
called on Deshmukh, Bhujbal rang up Mrs Deshmukh. "As home minister
I am privy to intelligence reports. These days he is attending too many
such functions," he said before Vaishali Deshmukh burst into laughter.
The Opposition
isn't impressed. Sena leader Pramod Navalkar says contemptuously: "They
are running a chana-kurmura stall. They can't take any decision, not even
on appointments to state-run corporations. Maharashtra has lost one year."
Vinod Tawde, Mumbai BJP chief, says, "Neither is a leader. Each minister
is acting independently of the Government. There is nothing to the equation."
The Opposition
is bound to feel so. But it isn't easy. Both Deshmukh and Bhujbal have
to suffer conspiracy theorists complaining to Pawar or Sonia Gandhi. Both
have therefore to be seen as being more loyal to the party than to their
government to satisfy party leaders-that too with empty coffers. For the
record Praful Patel reveals that the NCP is "satisfied" and
dubs the alliance "the need of the hour", while Adik says, "We
have no complaints but our idea is to come to power on our own."
No complaints
publicly, that is. But there are problems. The duo may have managed to
push through important decisions like the shifting of decision-making
power to panchayats and succeeded in stabilising the law and order situation
but there is a simmering discontent among partymen on both sides. The
challenge for the two would be to use their staying power and provide
a government that delivers.
Top
|
If
the markets don’t recover in the next 48 hours expect the worst, says
V Shankar Aiyar in 
