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The untimely death of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Maharashtra strongman Gopinath Munde created a huge void in the party. For the party, to find a successor for Munde when the state is going to Assembly polls in September-October this year is a big challenge.
After Munde’s death, the BJP has only a very few options. The party has to zero in on the chief ministerial candidate from one of three leaders — Union Minister for Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari, state BJP president Devendra Fadnavis and Leader of Opposition in the state council Vinod Tawde. But the biggest handicap with them is that they can’t match Munde in terms of popularity.
Gadkari and Fadnavis belong to the Brahmin community and a section of party leaders believes that their projection might drive away backward classes, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, notified tribes and minorities from the party. This will give a handle to the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance to paint the BJP as a party of Brahmins.
In Tawde’s case, though he comes from the politically-significant Maratha community, he has never fought an election.
However, some party functionaries feel Modi factor will help party win the election and that the chief ministerial candidate doesn’t matter. Modi is likely to have a major say in the selection of the chief ministerial candidate.
Munde’s leadership and his gamble to rope in parties such as the Republican Party of India, Swabhimanin Shetkari Sanghatana and Rashtriya Samaj Party into the BJP-SS alliance had paid off, as the BJP's vote share increased to a record 27.56 per cent in the Lok Sabha polls. “This won’t happen if Gadkari, Fadnavis or Tawde lead the party,” said a party leader.
In case of Tawde, who comes from the politically crucial Maratha community, he lacks mass base. Tawde, who has joined the BJP after starting his political career in the Akhil Bharatiya Janata Party, had never got elected to the state assembly but entered from back door to the state council.
However, some party functionaries argue that Modi wave will not die down but will come to the party's rescue notwithstanding Gadkari or Fadnavis or Tawde as party's face on the ground. BJP hopes that prime minister Narendra Modi will have a direct say in the selection of party's chief ministerial candidate and his charisma will benefit the party to fill up vacum created by Munde's demise.
As far as the BJP-Shiv Sena led five party alliance is concerned, allies who had come under one roof thanks to Munde's initiative will become aggressive to get more share during seat sharing. Shiv Sena has already announced that the party President Uddhav Thackeray would be its chief ministerial candidate, while other parties would press for a consensus candidate which may be acceptable for all.
A BJP’s leader said time is too short the alliance to work on a poll strategy to dislodge the Congress-NCP alliance government and thereby unfurl saffron flag atop Vidhan Bhavan (State Legislature).
