So, finally the decks are clear for the installation of the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra. Outgoing Chief Minister Eknath Shinde after a not-so-surprising tantrum has bowed to the inevitable. Given the composition of the new Assembly, it would have been a moral and electoral perversity for anyone other than the leader of the 132-strong BJP legislative party to head the government. That was the voters’ will as expressed through the ballot box. Shinde, as the leader of the second largest constituent in the Mahayuti after the BJP, has a key role to play in the government. Hopefully, the allocation of ministerial portfolios will be worked out amicably. The Chief Minister-elect, Devendra Fadnavis, has a task on his hands persuading ministerial-aspirants from his own party to wait out in order for him to accommodate a disproportionately high number of ministers from the Shiv Sena and the NCP. Exigencies of managing a coalition often call for the bigger constituent to make concessions. After all, for two and a half years Fadnavis, a former chief minister, had to work as a Deputy Chief Minister in the larger interest of the Mahayuti. His sacrifice has paid off with the voters rewarding the ruling coalition with a landslide win. After the delay in swearing in the new government one can hope that the allocation of portfolios will not become a matter of bitter contention. Those who voted for the alliance will feel let down should petty differences between Mahayuti leaders paralyse the functioning of the government. There is no time to lose. The challenge for the Mahayuti is to restore Maharashtra’s well-deserved reputation for good administrative management which had taken a serious knock in recent years following the wide ruptures in the state’s polity. Political stability is essential for a strong administration with a firm grip on the state’s affairs. As the commercial capital of the nation, Mumbai has lost its old elan. Civic affairs are in a mess, with massive corruption resulting in a near-breakdown of essential services, be it roads, water, or electricity supply, or garbage collection and disposal, Mumbai has become a serious case of urban decay. The first major political challenge the Fadnavis government would confront is to schedule the much-delayed election to the Brhanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The Opposition MVA, still nursing its wounds from the drubbing in the Assembly poll, will try and stage a comeback of sorts should it fare well in the civic poll. As the richest municipal corporation in the country, BMC, has virtually served as a milch cow for the Thackerays. Whether the MVA partners will fight together or go their own separate ways will be clear only when the BMC poll is notified. But going by the post-defeat recriminations between the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress party, it will not be a surprise if the MVA crumbles on the eve of the civic poll. The state government, on its part, ought to augment the vital infrastructure in and around the megapolis without it becoming a burden on the taxpayers. As it is, thanks to various welfare schemes such as the Ladki Bahin monthly cash payment of Rs 1,500 to all women between 18 and 60 years, the mounting debt of the state has reached unviable levels. Interest payments on debt alone account for about 40% of the state’s revenue. This should be worrying for any good keeper of the state’s treasury. That Mahayuti is now committed to raise the monthly cash payment to women from Rs 1,500 to Rs. 2,100 should ordinarily cause the presumptive Finance Minister Ajit Pawar sleepless nights. There are other claimants for assistance from the new government whose needs too cannot be ignored. Soyabean and cotton farmers, for instance, will seek help to tide over the current agrarian crisis in the state. There is a lot more on the plate of the new chief minister. Suffice it to say, with a smooth working relationship among the three constituents of the Mahayuti, Maharashtra should be able to look ahead with hope to the future, putting behind the bitter and often ugly exchanges between its leading politicians.
