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In India, politics has been closely following the woes of rebel MPs from the Shiv Sena party for a week. On their decision depends the fate of Maharashtra. The state of 115 million people, which is home to the financial capital Bombay, could move from the hands of the opposition to BJP Narendra Modi.
With our correspondent in Bangalore, Como Bastin
This is a real, ongoing, though unprecedented situation in India. Imagine that the LREM chartered a plane, took about twenty socialist or LR deputies to Guyana and locked them in a hotel to convince them to support the government. This is a bit of what the BJP did with elected rebels from Shiv Sena, Maharashtra’s ruling party in coalition with the opposition Congress party. They were taken to the neighboring state of Gujarat, then to Assam a few thousand kilometers from Bombay.
The BJP’s goal: to topple the opposition coalition and return to power in Maharashtra which it led for a long time, until 2019. Selected rebels, between 15 and 20, are locked up in front of the Radisson Blue hotel in the capital Guwahati. One hundred journalists from all over the country watched in the scorching heat for a white smoke or a simple statement.
BJP on the move?
Officially, the BJP isn’t moving, but that’s an open secret. Several BJP ministers from Assam visited Radisson Blue, including the Chief Minister who was photographed outside the hotel. And when Maharashtra’s central government strips rebel lawmakers of their police protection, the BJP-controlled central power offers them bespoke security. These political negotiations angered some of the local population, who fought against worst flood for decades in Assam.
” What happened at the Radisson Blue Hotel was dramatic! The ruling BJP undermines democracy through its money, its control over the Electoral Commission or the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said the leader of the opposition TMC party in Assam. Here, people lack food and water because of the floods. Why should we pay MPs who plan on 5 star hotels? »
Like him, many wonder who paid the indecent bill to stay at this luxury hotel.
Shiv Sena leader opposes this alliance with BJP
In the past, we have seen the BJP return a majority in its profits, as in Karnataka. For now, Uddhav Thackeray, head of the Shiv Sena in Bombay, opposes this alliance with the BJP whose policies he has recently criticized. So he threatened the rebel MPs and ministers from the Shiv Sena to be sacked if they didn’t return secretly to Bombay.
But they defended themselves, saying that Shiv Sena had long been an ally of the BJP. The leader of the rebellion even turned to the country’s Supreme Court to justify his approach. If the mighty Maharashtra were taken from the opposition, however, it would be a democratic shock to both the country and the opposition. This is why this case took a national turn.
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