Sanjay Nirupam: Mumbai’s stormy petrel on to his next port of call

However, the former Mumbai Regional Congress president perhaps also knows that this is his last stand – with Mumbai the be all and end all of his politics.

A native of Rohtas in Bihar, Nirupam landed here back in the 1980s with the dream of a career in journalism. In 1986, he found a job in Jansatta, The Indian Express’s sister publication.

As luck would have it, the Shiv Sena under Bal Thackeray was looking to expand its base beyond its sons-of-the-soil plank at the time. It had realised the value of the migrant vote in a fast-changing Mumbai – an estimated 20% of the population by then comprised “North Indians”.

With this in mind, the Sena decided to focus on its tabloid Dopahar Ka Saamana, to be printed in Hindi, besides its Marathi daily Saamana. Somewhere in 1993, Nirupam was picked by Thackeray to lead this new publication.

Again, Nirupam had a stroke of luck as Mumbai saw several upheavals around this time, from the communal riots of 1992 to the serial bomb blasts of 1993. The Sena’s regional politics took on shades of Hindutva, bringing it closer to North India-centric BJP, and surging Nirupam’s value in the eyes of the Thackerays, including Uddhav.

In 1996, in a show of their appreciation, the Thackerays sent Nirupam to the Rajya Sabha, with him continuing as an MP till 2005.

But then, in a surprise move, Nirupam left the party to join the Congress. Some said he had rubbed senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan the wrong way, and that the latter had conveyed his displeasure to Bal Thackeray. Others said Nirupam had got too big for his boots, irking seniors.

By all accounts, Nirupam settled down in the Congress pretty quickly. In 2009, the party fielded him from the Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat, and he won defeating BJP heavyweight and former Union minister Ram Naik. With his star on the rise, in 2013-14, the Congress even chose him to initiate the Budget debate in the Lok Sabha.

However, then came 2014, the Modi wave Lok Sabha election, and Nirupam lost to the BJP’s Gopal Shetty from Mumbai North.

To everyone’s surprise, in January 2015, the Congress high command named Nirupam the Mumbai Regional Congress president, replacing old loyalist Janardhan Chandurkar. The only explanation that upset party leaders could think of was that Nirupam had found a benefactor in then Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who apparently saw in his aggressive style an answer to the Shiv Sena and BJP.

If, in the Sena, Nirupam batted for Hindutva, in the Congress, one of the issues he proactively took on was the “right” of migrants to perform Chhat Puja on the Mumbai seashore.

However, his honeymoon period with the Congress proved short-lived, with the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls turning out to be disastrous for the Congress, which won only 31 seats (down from 52 in 2012) compared to 84 for the Shiv Sena and 82 for the BJP. As his leadership skills came under question, Nirupam resigned “owning responsibility”.

In the seven years since, Nirupam held no post in the party apart from taking on the Shiv Sena-BJP as spokesperson. Off and on would come news of his “unhappiness” with the Congress.

The Mumbai North West seat tussle may have given Nirupam the opening he needed. To be fair, the Congress itself has had little say in Mumbai’s Lok Sabha constituencies, with ally Shiv Sena (UBT) going ahead with announcement of candidates and forcing its hand.

After the Uddhav Sena declared the name of Amol Kirtikar – the son of sitting Shinde Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar – from Mumbai North West, Nirupam gave the Congress “one week” to take a call, adding that he was “not short of options”. As the days passed and he kept up his anti-Congress statements, the state unit removed him as one of the party’s star campaigners on Wednesday and then recommended his expulsion.

The go-ahead came promptly from the central leadership – perhaps more quickly than Nirupam expected.

On Thursday, Nirupam lashed out, claiming he had “already resigned” before the expulsion order came. He called the Congress a “directionless… indecisive” organisation, that had left “lakhs of workers” like him in the lurch.

He singled out Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal for criticism, implying he could not communicate in either English or Hindi, and asking how he had emerged as a power centre.

On Friday, Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad said: “The Congress is neither directionless nor indecisive. It is committed to its secular ideology.”

With neither the Shinde Sena nor the BJP acknowledging Nirupam as yet, he refused to say what his next step was. “At this point, I cannot reveal anything. I will unveil my plans in a few days,” he told The Indian Express.

Top sources in the BJP said Nirupam was likely to join the Shinde Sena. “It is for them to decide whether to field him from Mumbai North West.” The Shinde Sena is yet to name its candidate for the seat.

One reason Nirupam may not find a place in the BJP reportedly is that the party’s North Indian leaders have put their foot down. One of them said: “He is neither a team player, nor a mass leader.” The leader pointed to a post on X on Thursday by BJP activist Mohit Kamboj, saying: “Congress threw him (Nirupam) out. In 2019, he criticized PM Narendra Modi and BJP. He will be a liability.” The reference was to Nirupam’s remarks calling Modi an “uneducated” leader.

However, even the leader who is one of the BJP’s North Indian faces admitted that anything could happen: “Our allies and us will collectively weigh the pros and cons.”