BackWhy grassroots workers don’t listen to their leaders
Divisions within parties at the grassroots are forcing the top leadership to do firefighting
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Mumbai: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray are at each other’s throats and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is divided into two camps, led by its former president Nitin Gadkari and its deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde. The ruling coalition of Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the western state could not have asked for better conditions while facing the Lok Sabha elections.
However, divisions within both parties at the grassroots are forcing the top leadership to do firefighting. They are in no position to take advantage of the divided opposition.
In the run up to the elections, the Congress was insisting on a change in seat-sharing formula. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Congress had contested 26 seats out of 48 and the rest went to the NCP. But the Congress this time wanted two extra seats, which the NCP opposed and succeeded in retaining the 2009 formula.
After realising the enormity of the challenge posed by BJP’s prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, top leadership of both the parties have set aside their differences and are putting up a united front.
When the NCP leadership understood that it did not have a right candidate to take on Raju Shetti, Swabhimani Party’s seating member of Parliament in Hatkangale constituency who has now joined hands with BJP-ShivSena, NCP president Sharad Pawar readily agreed to give up the seat in favour of the Congress.
However, the sense of purpose shown by the top brass doesn’t seem to have percolated down to the rank and file. Last week, 400 office bearers of NCP from Sindhudurg district resigned in protest of the party high command’s diktat to campaign for seating MP and Congress candidate from Sindhudurg constituency, Nilesh Rane, who is also son of state’s industry minister Narayan Rane. The protest against party’s decision to support Rane’s candidature is led by party’s local legislator Deepak Kesarkar. The state’s deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar had to rush to Sindhudurg to assuage party workers but except for president of the party’s district unit, no party activist of any consequence attended Pawar’s meeting.
Similarly, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan was forced to air dash to Khatav-Man talukas of Satara district to placate local legislator Jairaj Gore who refused to campaign for NCP candidate from Madha constituency and state’s former deputy chief minister Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil. Though Gore in presence of Chavan assured to work wholeheartedly for Mohite-Patil, NCP supporters have doubts whether he will act on his commitment.
There are several such examples from all over Maharashtra where activists of the Congress and the NCP are at loggerheads with each other. These include constituencies like Sangli in western Maharashtra, Bhiwandi in Thane district, Latur in Marathwada region, among others.
Why has the situation got out of control and ground level activists of both parties are not ready to fall in line despite cajoling and threats by the top leadership?
The answer is that the leaders of both the parties routinely take swipes at each other from public platforms, keep fighting in cabinet meetings and details of such fights are regularly leaked to the media. Apart from this, leaders of Congress-NCP combine not only overlooks power-sharing arrangements with parties like BJP-Shiv Sena in local self-government institutions but also encourage them to teach other party a lesson.
Chief minister Chavan, during one of the rallies in Sangli district last week, while appealing to activists of both parties to set aside their differences and work for the common purpose, said, “You must realise this is not an election to zilla parishad or municipal body or cooperative sugar factory but an election to elect the prime minister of the country. If we continue to fight among ourselves then reins of the country will go in the hands of communal forces."
But it is easier said than done. For grassroots workers who are virtually engaged in street fights with activists of other parties to maintain their existence, it is not so easy to understand complexities of realpolitik and change ways when the top leadership wants them to.
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