And the chief minister of Maharashtra is ...

And the Chief Minister of Maharashtra is ....!

The capital of Maharashtra is Mumbai and consequently, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and all the Government offices are situated in Mumbai, which is also the financial capital of the country. This is the reason why the seat of power in Maharashtra is so important. That Maharashtra has 48 MPs, is no doubt important; but it is secondary, especially in the present time when the spend on elections has risen to astronomical levels. This is also a reason why BJP will not like to forego that all important chair for the sake of a compromise with Shiv Sena.

At the same time, for the inheritor of the Royal Crown in Shiv Sena, it is unthinkable to be a deputy to anyone at all. He is the mountain who will have to be approached if you are Mohammad preaching your religion. Uddhav Thackeray will not be in the Maharashtra cabinet, if he is not the Chief Minister. So he will not be in the cabinet. Period. But then who's going to occupy that all important chair? Devendra Fadnavis? Nitin Gadkari? Pankaja Munde?

Or some other rookie choice to beat them all? Let's discuss the names and see if we can find some threads to lead to the answer.

Before that, let me express my utter relief at ruling out another contender– Ajit Pawar. In 1978, when the senior Pawar broke away from Congress (R) and joined Janata Party to form a Government; he became the Chief Minister, even though the number of MLAs with him was nowhere near the number with the Janata Party. But the Janata stalwarts - veterans of popular agitations - were greenhorns when it came to sharing, holding and using power. And Sharad Pawar, at a tender age of 38 (as the ages of Indian leaders go), proved to be much more wily and manipulative than any of them. However, BJP leadership or their mentors in the RSS and least of all their two supreme leaders – Narendra Modi and Amit Shah – are not likely to be conned into a similar coup by NCP, the present-day manifestation of Pawar-centric power coterie.

My relief, of course, is linked to his now infamous comment. I do not care for the kind of language he used; Balasaheb Thakre and others have mouthed worse phrases; I find his purport despicable. Here is an ambitious politician who has always asserted himself over his colleagues in the party so that he is the sole contender among them for the top post in the state; and he does not have the sense to be cordial to Maharashtra beyond his district? How could he be so contemptuous towards the people of another district, even in jest? This man is unfit to be the leader of the whole State; better make a constitutional amendment to name the Pune ZP chief as 'Chief Minister' and put him there to douse the flames of his silly ambition. Thank the voters; he is out of the way.

Now, Devendra Fadnavis has never put his foot in his mouth in this fashion; but he too has not hidden his wish to carve out a separate Vidarbha. And he has every reason to expect fulfilment of his wish since it has been BJP's national policy to promote smaller states. So, shouldn't Devendra be made to wait it out till Vidarbha is separated? If he is for a statehood for Vidarbha, he has no business to be the chief executive of an entity which includes other parts of the state.

There is another thing going against him: his caste. Though Maharashtra has not been as vociferously anti-Brahmin as Tamil Nadu, the 'middle' castes dominate the politics here on the strength of their number and spread. They may be antagonistic towards one another; but they are unanimous in their opposition to Brahmins. A Brahmin Chief Minister will have to apply half his energy to dissipate this opposition before he begins to take productive action. Balasaheb Thakre has been the only leader since Maharashtra became a State, whose non-elitist credentials were so above suspicion that he could go and appoint a Brahmin as the Chief Minister. Though this argument does not rule out Devendra entirely; it does hinder his smooth ascent.

Nitin Gadkari has been the National president of BJP and Modi had to face certain unpleasant actions during his tenure. At the same time Gadkari is a weighty personality who no one in BJP can afford to ignore. So, what is the inference? That Gadkari will not be awarded the much-coveted post? Does Gadkari covet it? On the contrary, he has been saying he is not interested to move back to the state, now that he is a national level player. But then, will he be demoted to the state? Gadkari has a reputation as an efficient PWD Minister in the last BJP- Shiv Sena Government. That reputation may make him or mar him depending upon how he feels and Modi feels.

Khadse and Tawde are two more names being discussed in this context. Though both have worked hard representing BJP in the opposition; they are not as high profile as Devendra and Gadkari. Nor are they mass leaders at the state level. But then, a Prime Minister whose functioning style is that of a President, may prefer a state chief who functions as a satrap under his thumb. And neither is a Brahmin.

There is yet another name who is a prominent non-Brahmin and has a legacy of a mass leader - Pankaja Munde. She is a woman, she is a non-Brahmin, non-Maratha OBC and seems to enjoy Shiv Sena support since they had not fielded a candidate against her. She has all the trappings of a mass leader and has great presence. Gopinath Munde was a mass leader in his own right and though he was mainly responsible to oust Sharad Pawar in 1995; he had to contend with being a deputy to a Shiv Sena chief. Had he not met an unfortunate and untimely end; there wouldn't be any speculation on the subject of Maharashtra chief ministership. In the established tradition of our land, appointing Pankaja as chief minister would be a fitting tribute to her father, Gopinath Munde. Irresistible argument indeed!

So, who is it going to be? I vote for Pankaja!