MVA first birthday: BJP hates what Maharashtra loves!

Mumbai: After a turbulent journey, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government will cut the cake to mark its first anniversary in office on Saturday, but the Opposition BJP may ignore the birthday bash. In the past 12 months, the ruling Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress alliance and Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party enjoyed an 'all-hate' relationship.

While the MVA is all cheers, the BJP remains crabby and continues to claw at Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, his minister son Aditya Thackeray, and of course, the so-called three-party 'autorickshaw government'. Nevertheless, the tri-party regime has trudged along considerably well, proving wrong all BJP soothsayers marking calendar dates predicting it downfall.

The next 80 hours were unprecedented in the country's political history as the three parties ran helter-skelter right up to Delhi and Haryana to gather their straying MLAs' flock, bundled them in well-guarded hotels, and finally paraded them in full public view, live on national TV, to prove its credentials, loud and clear to BJP and the Raj Bhavan.

In a tactical move, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari quietly administered the oath of office to Thackeray and Cabinet five days later on November 28 - ironically, in a massive public ceremony at Shivaji Park.

In the saddle, Thackeray made it clear he meant 'business', shot off an early-bird letter to the Centre demanding outstanding dues, ordered a review of all 'white-elephant' projects like the Bullet Train, sought scrapping of the GST regime, probe into the Jalyukt Shivar scheme, and other tough moves that rattled the BJP.

Then came the Coronavirus pandemic in early-March and everything went into a tailspin as Thackeray & Co. grappled on various fronts, while the BJP waited to pounce on him, akin to the 'power'-hungry wolf of the famed fairy tale.

The MVA's war against the Virus earned laurels from the WHO, the BJP-led Centre, global media and the people at large, but like Oliver Twist, the state BJP leaders "wanted more" from Thackeray.

There were a series of letters on various topics - probably more written by the BJP to Thackeray than any other opposition leader to a CM in the past six decades, and once even the Governor joined in the letter-war. There were studious missives from senior Pawar on national issues concerning the state to the Centre, once to Governor who 'dropped' one swearing-in ceremony from his coffee-table memoirs, and one by Thackeray to Governor which rattled one and all.

There were more challenges - in June came the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput and his ex-aide Disha Salian; the BJP alleged the involvement of 'baby penguin' Aditya Thackeray, but failed to ruffle his cool feathers. The MVA retaliated, by changing the location of the Mumbai Metro carshed from Aarey Colony to Kanjurmarg, but when Fadnavis attempted to defend his move, Sena leader Kishore Tiwari accused him of 'violating the oath of office and attempting to favour' some builders for the new (Kanjurmarg) site.

The state also scrapped the tendering process of the ambitious Dharavi Redevelopment Project which will be done afresh, but the BJP surprisingly kept quiet, as Thackeray's credibility with the state's masses remained high.

Kangana bolt

From the snowy mountains of Himachal Pradesh descended actress Kangana Ranaut, all hot and bothered, to slam the MVA, targeting the Thackerays and Mumbai Police, but carefully kept off the Pawars, compared Mumbai with Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, and did not spare even her karma-bhoomi of Bollywood. The MVA caught her unawares with the Shiv Sena-run BMC detecting illegal constructions to demolish Kangana's Bandra bungalow, but she breathed fire afresh in an ugly war of words that finally earned her a Y-Plus security through the Centre. In between the state was hit by the fury of Nisarga Cyclone which ravaged many regions in Konkan, two mega-floods Vidarbha, followed by flooding in Marathwada and Western Maharashtra while Thackeray handled what came to be labelled as the 'second most challenging job in the country'.

ED, NCB spokes

The ding-dong between the state and Centre continued on other fronts, too, when the latter handed over the Koregaon-Bhima and Elgar Parishad cases to the National Investigation Agency, the Sushant Singh probe to the CBI with the ED and NCB entering the fray, several Bollywood personalities on the radar for alleged links with the drug mafia, etc.

Considering the hot seat Thackeray is occupying with the Centre, the BJP occasionally making it hotter, there was much speculation on how far the MVA government will roll, as it rocks.

Unfazed by the provocations, the Sena-NCP-Congress leaders unitedly vow that not only with the MVA complete its full term, but rule for another 25 years, depressing the BJP even further.

Quaid Najmi