GST bill: Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray has the last laugh as of now

Uddhav Thackeray

Interesting politics is being seen in the state these days, especially from Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, who has been able to play like his late father Balasaheb Thackeray, in terms of making the ally kneel down before him.

After a series of attempts to make the BJP shaky, Uddhav has been successful in pushing it into a corner. The BJP too, is playing into the hands of the Sena, because it wants the ally's assistance in making the government in Maharashtra stable, in getting its presidential candidate elected, and the all-important GST bill passed in the state.

Little wonder then, that when the Sena wanted the GST bill to have its own conditions fulfilled - the Sena-controlled BMC will be most-affected if it does not get its share of octroi - the BJP rushed to Thackeray with a draft bill on Monday. Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar called on him twice in two days to get the Sena's final approval for the bill, which will be ratified between May 20 and 22. The state Cabinet approved the draft proposal yesterday after Thackeray's clearance.

Thackeray was given a presentation on GST on Monday, which he promptly discarded, and asked for assurance that the BMC would be compensated directly by the Centre, and not by the state treasury. The minister rejected this suggestion saying that making payment through the state was the union government's decision, and changing it only for Maharashtra (ie for the Sena) would mean making a similar provision for other states.

'BMC won't beg'
Sources said the Sena chief agreed when Mungantiwar assured him that the payment would be made in advance, not only to BMC but all other municipal corporations in the state. It was also decided that 8% extra would be paid annually to the BMC and others. Sena leaders said that their president told the minister that the BMC would not run behind any government with a begging bowl.

'Behaving like Balasaheb'
"This move has shown the aggressive side of Uddhav Thackeray. We recall the days when BJP leaders, ministers and sympathisers visited Balasaheb with a request. The regular practice stopped after the BJP got more Assembly seats and formed its government in association with us. We couldn't get as much because of few numbers, but we're happy that our leader is behaving more like his father," said a Sena leader.

BJP needs Sena
A BJP minister said the party was helpless as of now because it desperately needed the Sena on its side. "We will be in a minority if the Sena pulls out of our government in Maharashtra. It is because of the NCP's unwillingness to join hands with it and the Congress that our show is going on. If the Sena, NCP, Congress and the MLAs who oppose us get together, we will be out of power the very next hour," said the minister. However, he was optimistic that things would change after presidential polls. "We want the Sena's 25,000 votes. Our priority is to get Sena to vote for the NDA this time because it had voted against us in the past two polls," he said.

So it would be pertinent on BJP's senior leadership to impress upon Thackeray to divert his votebank to their candidate. The Sena voted for Pranab Mukherjee and before that it supported Pratibha Patil. The then candidates and senior UPA leaders had requested Balasaheb Thackeray for support. It would be interesting to see who visits Thackeray this time.