Amid fallout of Baba Siddique’s murder, why Devendra Fadnavis is facing the heat from within Mahayuti and outside

The NCP spokesperson said the murder was a big blow to his party. “The murder highlights the dangerous security situation prevalent in Mumbai. We can understand if such a thing happened to an ordinary man… But that a former minister was killed shows the failure of the state home department,” Mitkari said, adding, “If the Mumbai Police had taken the threat to Baba Siddique’s life seriously, this murder would not have happened. Our national president Ajit Pawar has lost a close confidant.”

This is not the first time that the NCP and the BJP have found themselves at odds. Last month, Fadnavis said at a media conclave that the reason for the ruling Mahayuti’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls was the NCP’s inability to transfer its votes to allies. It wasn’t the first time Ajit, whose NCP contested four seats and won one in the Lok Sabha polls, found himself being cornered within the Mahayuti. In July, an article in the RSS-affiliated weekly Vivek stated that “workers of the BJP have not liked joining hands with the NCP”. With tough three-way seat negotiations adding to the strain, ideological differences between the two parties have played out in the open before.

While Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut accused Chief Minister Eknath Shinde of interfering in Fadnavis’s department and called for their resignation in light of Siddique’s murder, a senior NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader called it an “alarming situation” and an “absolute failure of the home minister”. Raut was referring to the alleged tussle between the CM and Deputy CM over the functioning of the police force, especially over transfer postings.

State Congress president Nana Patole termed the situation a “complete breakdown of law and order”. “Where is the government? They just come out with some narrative every time law and order is challenged. There is a breakdown in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and other parts of the state,” he said.

As the police grapple to find the motive behind Siddique’s murder, a series of law-and-order incidents over the past year-and-a-half has allowed the Opposition to raise questions about Fadnavis’ image of a “capable and credible administrator”, which he acquired during his tenure as CM from 2014 to 2019.

A senior BJP minister admitted that the CM, being the head of the government, has the power to exercise his jurisdiction across departments. “Even if it goes against our wishes, we need to compromise for the sake of coalition politics,” the minister said, pointing out that the government of the Congress and the undivided NCP faced similar problems during its rule between 1999 and 2014 as the NCP held the Home Department at the time and the CM was from the Congress.

In the alliance, things seemingly started to go out of Fadnavis’s control from September 1 last year after the police lathi-charged Maratha quota protesters led by activist Manoj Jarange-Patil in Antarwali Sarathi village of Jalna district. At the time, Fadnavis faced questions from not only the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) but also his allies, with NCP leader and fellow Cabinet colleague Chhagan Bhujbal being the only one to publicly defend the Deputy CM. With Shinde’s intervention resulting in Jarange-Patil breaking his fast, Fadnavis was forced to publicly apologise for the lathi charge in a bid to contain the damage.

The Home Department again faced questions in February when the BJP’s Kalyan East MLA Ganpat Gaikwad shot Shiv Sena worker Mahesh Gaikwad inside a police station over a land dispute. Fadnavis faced more questions after two bike-borne men, reportedly members of the same Lawrence Bishnoi gang that has claimed responsibility for Siddique’s murder, fired two rounds at Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s home in April.

The government, police, and the Home Department faced a volley of uncomfortable questions from the Bombay High Court as well as the Opposition last month after the incident of sexual abuse at a school in Badlapur came to light.

While the police received a rap on the knuckles for lapses in intelligence and procedure, the Opposition questioned the killing of the accused, Akshay Shinde, in an encounter. The fact that it happened in CM’s home turf of Thane made it even more uneasy for the government.

The string of lapses in law and order has left the ruling Mahayuti — comprising the BJP, the Shiv Sena, and the NCP — facing the same question it had raised repeatedly ahead of the 2014 Assembly polls to corner the then ruling Congress-NCP government: “Where is Maharashtra heading?”

With a poor Lok Sabha performance behind it and Fadnavis under fire, the Mahyauti faces a daunting challenge from the MVA in the coming Assembly elections as the latter tries to dent the image of the government and Fadnavis, one of the ruling alliance’s most prominent faces who is expected to lead the ruling alliance into the Assembly elections.