Mumbai: For the first time, the Maharashtra state BJP is contesting the state assembly elections under the leadership of Nitin Gadkari, the Union Transport Minister and a close confidante of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The party sources claim that there is a possibility of Gadkari taking charge as the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra, if the BJP comes to power.
People close to him claim that he is not much interested in this position. However, it is a known fact that Gadkari is secretly nursing the chief ministerial ambitions after the tragic death of his party rival Gopinath Munde.
The top leaders of the BJP in New Delhi have realised that it is not easy to contest the election in the absence of late Gopinath Munde. Munde was the only big mass leader of the BJP and had the backing of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Realising this, BJP President Amit Shah attended a rally at Chaundi in Ahmednagar district to conclude the Sangharsh Yatra organised by state BJP youth wing President, Pankaja Munde, who received a massive support for the rally as well as Sangharsh Yatra. Pankaja Munde is the daughter of Gopinath Munde.
However, it is a fact that Nitin Gadkari is at the centre of state BJP and every move is made with his consent.
The late Pramod Mahajan and Gopinath Munde enjoyed a very close relationship with the Thackeray family unlike Gadkari. After the death of Mahajan, his brother-in-law Munde played a major role in maintaining the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance intact. Munde had also made a futile exercise to reunite the warring cousins Raj and Uddhav Thackeray to fight the Congress-NCP government.
Munde is also credited with carving out Mahayuti in which smaller forces like the offshoots of RPI, Shetkari Sanghatana and Maratha Mahasangh came together. Munde stressed on the consolidation of OBC votes to fight the Maratha dominated NCP.
However, after the spectacular victory in the recent Lok Sabha elections, Gadkari is more interested in strengthening the rank and file of the party in Maharashtra.
A month before the state elections, Gadkari made a thorough study of 174 state assembly constituencies of the Shiv Sena by deploying three expert teams to these constituencies. The study was more focused on the seats which Shiv Sena lost and came to the conclusion that there were more than 55 constituencies, where the Shiv Sena did poorly.
Annoyed with this study, the Shiv Sena did not accept these facts and it led to the widening of gap between the BJP-Shiv Sena. Actually Gadkari is having informal and friendly relations with Raj Thackeray, the arch rival of the Shiv Sena.
It is important to note that Raj Thackeray took the decision not to field any candidate against the BJP in the parliamentary elections. The decision was the outcome of the close relationship between Gadkari and Raj Thackeray. Gadkari is of the strong opinion that in all the constituencies of the Shiv Sena, there was no scope for the development of the BJP in the last 25 years and because of the alliance, the party apparatus is totally paralysed in 2/3rds of the state.
The late Balasaheb Thackeray dominated the alliance till his death. Even the top most eaders of the BJP like AB Vajpayee and LK Advani had to travel to Matoshree, the residence of the Thackeray family to discuss the politics with him.
Gadkari, who could not tolerate this dominating nature of the Shiv Sena for a long time, started taking on the Shiv Sena after the Lok Sabha victory. The tragic death of Gopinath Munde opened the gates of Maharashtra politics to Gadkari, even though he is not a mass leader.
Gadkari fought the first ever direct election of his life recently from Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency and got elected with a thumping majority. He has no experience in the direct elections and was a member of the upper house (Vidhan Parishad) for three terms. With his thumping victory from Nagpur defeating a formidable Congress MP Vilas Muttemwar, Gadkari has finally emerged as a mass leader.
It may be recalled that the relationship between Gadkari and Munde was not good after he became the national president of the BJP in 2010. The BJP's rank and file was surprised when the RSS Supremo Dr. Mohan Bhagwat made Gadkari the national president of the BJP. However, his performance as the national president of the BJP was satisfactory and he was about to become the BJP president for the second time. But the serious allegations of corruption against him forced Gadkari to step aside.
The crisis started in state politics when Gadkari refused to appoint Madhu Devalekar, a close aide of Munde as the president of Mumbai BJP unit. During Gadkari's regime, Munde was isolated in the BJP. Gadkari could play the major role only because of the support of the RSS.
Gopinath Munde had even decided to quit the BJP and was planning to join the Congress. Many BJP district presidents had also tendered their resignations expressing their solidarity with him. The aggressive stance of Munde, forced Gadkari to remain in the central politics.
Nitin Gadkari has a firm commitment to the RSS and has an excellent rapport with the industrial and business houses. He is a workaholic and can work for 16-18 hours a day without any breaks.
That is why perhaps he is most liked minister of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A worker of ABVP, an RSS volunteer from childhood Gadkari never missed the RSS Vijayadashmi Utsav at Nagpur and always attended it in full RSS uniform. He is a man with innovative ideas, entrepreneurship and is a task master besides being an excellent team leader.
An excellent orator with a presence of mind, Nitin Gadkari always dominates every event. No wonder he will be the first choice of the BJP for the post of Chief Minister of Maharashtra whether the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance remains intact or they fight independently.
(Sanjeev Unhale is former executive editor Lokmat, Aurangabad. He will be writing for ibnlive on Maharashtra assembly elections)
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