Maharashtra Newsletter| Munde is not just playing cricket
Rejection of Munde's candidature on technical grounds will always provide fodder to Pawar's critics that there's more than meets the eye
Around a month back when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Gopinath Munde announced his intention to contest the elections for the post of president of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), most observers dismissed it as another attempt to unsettle agriculture minister and president of the Nationalist Congress President (NCP) Sharad Pawar, who is well-entrenched in the politics of cricket.
However, those who have followed Munde’s politics over the last three decades knew better.
Munde, who always believed Pawar to be the most influential leader of the Congress party (though Pawar now runs his own party, his party’s ideology is hardly different from that of the Congress, prompting many to jokingly refer to NCP as a Pawar faction of the Congress) in the state, knows that if one wants to challenge the Congress in the state, one needs to tackle Pawar.
In 1995, when the BJP-Shiv Sena wrested power from the Congress, one of the major drivers behind the change was Munde. In the run-up to the elections, he ran a very aggressive campaign in the state, making wild allegations against Pawar, including that the latter had links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
But Munde also understood that Pawar is not merely dependent on political power for creating his larger than life image, he also controls many cultural and sporting organizations and also some industry lobby groups that have helped him take advantage of his political position to maintain a stranglehold over these institutions.
Though Munde did not succeed in challenging Pawar’s hegemony over the Maharashtra State Co-operative Sugar Factories Federation Ltd, he has managed to become an important player in the politics of this lobby group and has ensured that the organization cannot be run without consulting him.
Given all these developments, it was but logical for Munde to enter the politics of cricket as well.
To be sure, perhaps the only person who had not taken Munde’s candidature lightly was Pawar himself, who instead of entering into an open contest with Munde, chose to ensure that Munde’s application was rejected on technical grounds.
In a debate on this issue on one of the Marathi news channels, executive president of NCP’s state unit, Jitendra Avad claimed that Pawar had nothing to do with the rejection of Munde’s candidature, and that had there been elections for the post, Pawar would have got at least 250 votes out of the 318-member electoral college.
If the Pawar camp was so confident of winning the election, they should have let elections take place and ensure that Munde was defeated electorally. Rejection of Munde’s candidature on technical grounds will always provide fodder to Pawar’s critics that there’s more than meets the eye.
Moreover, winning the MCA election is no easy task as the Pawar camp would like us to believe.
The 40-odd clubs that play in Mumbai’s various leagues such as the Times Shield or Kanga league under the banners of companies such as the Associated Cement Company and Mahindra and Mahindra are controlled by unions and these unions owe their affinity to the Shiv Sena.
Besides, Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan doesn’t exactly enjoy a cosy relationship with Pawar and Chavan, too, has entered the politics of cricket by securing nomination as an authorised representative of the one of the clubs.
It was believed that Munde and Chavan reached an agreement about Chavan helping Munde to secure support from the clubs run by public sector undertakings such as Air India Ltd, LIC and State Bank of India Ltd.
After all, there’s much to gain from cricket too.
Tailpiece
The jury may still be out on whether Sachin Tendulkar should have waited this long before announcing his retirement from cricket. But there’s no such doubt when it comes to talking about former Lok Sabha speaker and former MCA president, Manohar Joshi.
Observers say he should have called it quits long back.
On Sunday, during the annual Dussehra rally of the Shiv Sena at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai, Joshi was booed by Shiv Sainiks and forced to leave the stage because of his public criticism of party president Uddhav Thackeray a few days before the rally.
Joshi, or Sir as he is called in Sena circles, is now in his mid-seventies and has the distinction of being the only outgoing speaker of the Lok Sabha to loose elections. Joshi lost to Congress candidate Eknath Gaikwad in the North Central constituency of Mumbai in 2004. Despite this, he was nominated by the Sena to the Rajya Sabha in 2006 at the instance of then party chief, the late Balasaheb Thackeray.
Though the then party’s executive president, Uddhav Thackeray, was not in favour of nominating Joshi, he decided to honour the wishes of his father.
But Joshi lost his usefulness in the eyes of Uddhav when he could not ensure a victory for the Sena candidate in the assembly constituency from Dadar where Sena’s headquarters, Sena Bhavan—also the residence of Joshi—is located.
Similarly in the 2012 municipal elections, Sena lost all municipal wards to the Maharashtra Navanirman Sena in the Dadar area.
Despite all these setbacks, Joshi was hoping the party will once again give him a ticket for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but Uddhav dropped enough hints that Joshi will not get a party ticket, following which Joshi called Uddhav a “weak leader".
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