Maha ads story: After political damage, Shinde in 'damage-control' mode

Mumbai, June 14 (IANS) A day after the ruling Shiv Sena's ad blitzkrieg resulted in a political carpet-bombing, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday lapsed into a 'damage-control' mode.

The party issued a fresh, 'politically correct' advertisement, distributing due credit to all, including the BJP's Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is seen grinning and waving in the photo, with Shinde shown on the left.

In contrast to sharing space only with Prime Minister Narendra Modi the previous day, the ads on Wednesday have become roomier, accommodating even Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the late Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray, and Thane strongman and Shinde's 'guru' the late Anand Dighe.

Besides the Shiv Sena's 'Bow-and-Arrow' symbol, even the BJP's 'Lotus' blooms at the top with the twin slogans: "Peoples' choice only for Shiv Sena-BJP alliance", "Our heads at the feet of the people, Long Live Maharashtra".

Surprisingly, the bottom of the ad has squeezed in all the Shiv Sena cabinet ministers -- though the BJP ministerial team is missing -- with a message expressing "deepest gratitude to the people of Maharashtra".

Other findings of the survey -- conducted by ZeeTV -- are mentioned, saying odi remains the choice of 84 per cent of the people, 62 per cent nodding that the 'double-engine government' has given a fillip to the state's development, 46.4 per cent of the respondents rooted for the ruling alliance, 34.6 per cent only for the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, and 19 per cent for the others.

Tuesday's ads in which Shinde had unceremoniously dumped Fadnavis, the late Thackeray, Shah, Dighe or even his own team-mates, had sparked off a huge political ruckus with the MVA leaders leering and jeering at the ruling alliance.

In the controversial ads, Shinde appeared to unabashedly grab full credit as being the state's "most popular" leader, and catapulting himself above Fadnavis and below the Prime Minister with the line: "Modi in rashtra; Shinde in Maharashtra' ("Modi in India, Shinde in Maharashtra).

The BJP was understandably rattled and outraged, with Fadnavis reporting "sick" with an ear ache to skip events with the Chief Minister on Tuesday.

The Shiv Sena proclaimed that Shinde was the popular choice for the Chief Minister post with 26.1 per cent of the voters' nod, pipping Fadnavis, by a margin of 2.9 per cent, who plays the second fiddle by securing 23.2 per cent.

There were more shocks for the BJP, with the contention that Modi and Shinde are getting huge affection from the people in the survey, virtually making them a "dream-team".

"The partnership of Modi-Shinde -- that has resulted in many public welfare projects -- has secured the top position in a recent survey," said the ad, rattling BJP circles.

It added that 49.3 per cent of the people here have selected the partnership of Shinde-Fadnavis, patting itself on the back.

As many as 30.2 per cent of the voters rooted for BJP and 16.2 per cent preferred the Shiv Sena, or a total of 46.4 per cent, in the survey, showing a large photo of Modi-Shinde, but all others were conspicuously missing from Tuesday's ads.

In the 2014 and 2019 Assembly elections, the BJP had fought the polls on the plank of "Narendra (Modi) in India, Devendra (Fadnavis) in Maharashtra".

However, now Shinde virtually eased out Fadnavis from that slot as per the survey results, and perched himself there with the brand new slogan of "Modi in rashtra, Shinde in Maharashtra".

The full-paper ad figures in many leading Marathi papers and comes days after a row was kicked up over the Chief Minister's son and Thane MP, Shrikant Shinde's threat to quit, and the bickering over the much-delayed cabinet expansion plans.

These ads comes barely a fortnight ahead of the first anniversary of swearing-in of Shinde-Fadnavis regime on June 30, after the Shiv Sena (UBT)-Congress-Nationalist Congress Party MVA government led by former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was toppled.