Change of guard dominates Maha political scene

ashok

Mumbai: A change of guard — which saw the exit of Vilasrao Deshmukh and emergence of Ashok Chavan as Chief Minister, the major reshuffle in the political set-up, the emergence of Narayan Rane as a strong force, Raj Thackeray championing the cause of Maharashtrians, dominated the political scene in Maharashtra during 2008.

It had been a happening year in the political scene. While a senior leader from Maharashtra Shivraj Patil has to resign as Union Home Minister in the wake of the November terror attacks in Mumbai, chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had to go. Incidentally both of them hail from Latur in Marathwada region. However, as far as Marathwada region is concerned, the new chief minister hails from Nanded, a prominent district in the region.

Special: Yearender 2008

While the Congress took its share, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was not far away — when it asked RR Patil to step down as deputy chief minister and Home minister. Patil resigned and Chhagan Bhujbal became the deputy chief minister, but the crucial Home department was given to Jayant Patil, who in the Vilasrao-regime was the Finance minister and presented the budget a record nine times in a row.

Even while Democratic Front faced a crisis of sorts in the aftermath of the terror attacks, Narayan Rane raised a banner of revolt against Deshmukh and intimately was sacked by the Congress high command for targeting Deshmukh and Ahmed Patel, the high-profile Political Secretary of Congress chief and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Rane, who has a strong network and following in the coastal Konkan region, in the times to come would give a tough time to the Congress.

Politically after the terror attacks, the government has come under sharp attack from the Shiv Sena-BJP saffron alliance which had demanded immediate removal of three key officials — director general of police A N Roy, Mumbai police chief Hasan Gafoor and additional chief secretary (Home) Chitkala Zutsi.

For one for whom the year has been politically good is Raj Thackeray, the president of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, and rebel nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. Born just two years after Bal Thackeray founded the Shiv Sena in June 1966, Raj Thackeray grew up watching his uncle nurture the Sena — a party set up to crusade against the "marginalisation" of Marathis and espouse the cause of `sons of the soil' — in its nascent years, through attacks against the "Madrasis" -- all the south Indians were condescendingly called as then. In a way, the Sena and Raj grew up together — bred as they were on contempt for "Upras" (outsiders).

But, along the way, both the Shiv Sena and Raj enlarged their canvases in their own ways. While the Sena embraced the Hindutva in the early eighties and began playing effectively the combined Hindutva-Marathi card, Raj grandly announced that he was all for "all inclusive" politics after he quit the Shiv Sena in December 2005. In the process of espousing his cause, he during the year targeted Amitabh Bachchan, his wife Jaya Bachchan. Such was his tirade that a gun-wielding Bihari youth Rahul Raj declared that he intended to kill Raj and took a BEST bus hostage, but he was immediately shot dead by police, leading to a major political crisis in New Delhi. The Maharashtra government was attacked by leaders like Lalu Prasad, Ramvilas Paswan, Mayawati, Amar Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Nitish Kumar for being soft on Raj.

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The Vidarbha farmers' suicide remained a major political issue. And the debt waiver and debt relief announced by the Centre during the budget came to the relief of the farmers — but the Opposition and activist group like Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti say that the benefits have not reached the farmers. As many as 37.69 lakh farmers had been benefited from the debt waiver and relief programme, which touches a whooping Rs 7,769 crore in the state, officials said.

Another major political issue in Maharashtra was the probe into the September 29 Malegaon blast — which has been allegedly engineered by Hindu fundamentalists. The BJP and the Shiv Sena has come down heavily on the state government and the Centre for the Malegaon probe. "There has not been any decision (on the hanging) of Afzal Guru (the convict in Parliament attack case), but the nationalists are being booked under MCOCA," Sena chief Bal Thackeray said in his strong reaction. "Important issues like suicide by farmers and power shortage are being ignored by the alliance government and to divert the attention of people, the government is fabricating cases against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit," he alleged.

Power too remained an important issue in the state. A capacity addition of over 9,000 MW has been planned in the next five years in a phased manner to tide over the power crisis. Plants totaling 2,000 MW are under construction at Parli, Paras, Khaparkheda and Bhusawal. Apart from this, the government has also approved 1,000 MW capacity addition at Chandrapur power station. It is also proposed to install an additional unit of 1,980 MW capacity at Koradi.

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