An early-morning presidential order sets ball in motion

On Friday evening, as an unlikely three-party coalition of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress appeared set to stake its claim to power in Maharashtra, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Bhupender Yadav landed in Mumbai.

All eyes, and television cameras, were trained on the YB Chavan Centre in Nariman Point with analysts expecting the three parties to announce a bid to form government any moment. No one noticed when Ajit Pawar quietly slipped out of the meeting around 9pm to hold talks with Yadav.

It would be the culmination of weeks of tense negotiations that had tottered on the verge of collapse several times, only to be resuscitated by the BJP brass, including Devendra Fadnavis and party chief Amit Shah. After talking to at least six top BJP leaders and aides, who wished to remain anonymous, HT has pieced together an account of the roller-coaster talks that ended in the surprise early morning by the possibility that the three-party coalition could stake its claim on Saturday. Most of the groundwork for the alliance had been laid when Ajit Pawar, who was also the leader of the NCP legislature party until being removed on Saturday evening, came to Delhi earlier in the week to meet top BJP leaders.

By 10pm, the final touches had been put on the arrangement. “The deal was finally sealed around 10pm,” said a senior BJP leader. “Fadnavis made a call to the party leadership in Delhi, immediately requesting that the swearing-in should catch Congress and Shiv Sena leaders napping.” On the other side of the city, Pawar declared Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as the next chief minister of Maharashtra.

By then, it was public that governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had cancelled his scheduled trip to Delhi over the weekend but it was assumed that he was staying back to hear from the Opposition coalition. Instead, Ajit Pawar drove to the Raj Bhavan to apprise Koshyari of the developments in person, said a second BJP leader. A report was immediately conveyed to Rashtrapati Bhavan. “The report to President Kovind was sent late last night,” said a third senior BJP leader.

Officials had already started gathering at Raj Bhavan. By 4am, the Union home ministry had been alerted and officials were working to repeal President’s Rule. The official gazette notification came at 5.47am and roughly two hours later, Maharashtra had a new government.

Behind the scenes of these dramatic developments, the seed for a tie-up between Ajit Pawar and the BJP was sown this summer, when the party — annoyed at the Sena’s constant barbs at the central government — decided to send feelers to the NCP for a possible tie-up ahead of the general elections.

A senior Union minister who hails from Maharashtra was deputed to initiate talks with the NCP in April , but the regional outfit had a pre-condition: it would have to snap ties with the Sena. According to a person privy to this meeting, talks broke down because the BJP didn’t want to snap ties with its oldest ally.

“The BJP did not want to be seen as not taking the allies along. The RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] was also consulted, and the feedback was that the two parties that are ideologically in agreement should not part ways as it would go against the attempt to coalesce the Hindu vote bank,” a fourth BJP functionary added.

When the assembly results on October 24 threw up a hung House, the Sena’s demand for a rotational chief minister and equal distribution of ministerial berths drove a wedge between the partners. The relationship deteriorated on November 3 when Thackeray didn’t return Fadnavis’s phone calls, said a fifth BJP functionary. A peeved Fadnavis rushed to Delhi to meet Shah the next day and it was decided to open a channel of communication with Ajit Pawar, added the functionary.

The RSS was also taken into confidence and on November 5, Fadnavis flew down to Nagpur to meet Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat. The next day, Union minister Nitin Gadkari met Ajit Pawar.

Talks between the BJP and Ajit Pawar moved into high gear on November 10, when Sharad Pawar and the Congress refused to back the Sena’s bid for power and said they needed more time — resulting in Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray meeting the governor without any letters of support. At least one senior NCP MP helped the BJP in negotiating the deal and identifying the weak spots within Pawar’s party, the second BJP leader quoted above claimed.

Senior NCP leaders, and even some from the BJP, also argued that a two-party coalition would be more effective than an alliance of three partners. Two partners, the second BJP leader said, would mean an equitable share in power to both. Some leaders in the NCP saw merit in this. Shah was also constantly in touch with Ajit Pawar, Fadnavis and intermediaries who wanted to see a “two party coalition” come to power.

Weeks of painstaking negotiations paid off late in the night on Friday as the BJP’s manoeuvres stumped politicians and political watchers alike. “I had earlier said anything can happen in cricket and politics, now you can understand what I meant when I said that,” Gadkari quipped on Saturday.