Mumbai: Soon after Maharashtra’s first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won its trust vote amid chaos and controversy, a BJP legislator met some reporters in the legislature canteen. He was explaining why the government chose to go for a voice vote instead of a division of votes. The reason, he said, is that the BJP government did not want to be seen as surviving with the direct or indirect support of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which it had derided as corrupt all through the election campaign.

Had the Speaker allowed a division of votes, the NCP would have been forced to either vote for the government or abstain. In either scenario, the government would have won the trust vote. But such victory would come with the stigma of support from a party mocked as “naturally corrupt" by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his campaign speeches in Maharashtra.

The BJP has 122 members in the assembly and it needed 23 more to reach the 145-mark to remain in power. With NCP’s 41 votes, it would have comfortably crossed the mark. Had NCP abstained, then the halfway mark would have come down to 124. Again, the BJP could have won easily, with support from nine independents and the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, which has three legislators.

A major reason why voters threw out the Congress-NCP government was the perception that it was deeply corrupt. The NCP, in particular, was seen as the more corrupt of the two, with the names of its former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, Sunil Tatkare and Chhagan Bhujbal linked to the irrigation scam, toll tax scam and Maharashtra Sadan scam.

The BJP used these allegations to the hilt during rhe campaign, even announcing that it will jail Ajit Pawar if it came to power. Wary of the public reaction if it was seen as taking the support of the party it attacked, BJP avoided a vote division in the house.

The BJP wanted NCP’s support to remain invisible, but it is too obvious to be missed by anyone. The people have not fallen for BJP’s duplicity in taking NCP’s support but not accepting the same.

The anger on social media networks shows the strategy on maintaining ambiguity on taking NCP’s support has backfired. One cartoon that has gone viral shows chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in full Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) uniform—white half-sleeves shirt, khaki shorts, black leather shoes and black cap; the buckle on his belt, though, carries the NCP’s flag.

Anger has spilled over to Fadnavis’s Facebook page as well. Under the chief minister’s post thanking legislators for the trust vote, there are over 5,500 comments, and the overwhelming majority of these criticise the BJP, Modi and Fadnavis for dumping Sena and joining hands with NCP.

For now, the Fadnavis government has survived. And there is no threat to its existence until May 2015 either, when the opposition can table another trust vote. But till it brings estranged partner Shiv Sena on board, the government’s stability will remain under threat. And NCP has already qualified its support, saying its support is not unconditional, and that if it finds government’s policies anti-people, then it will not only criticise it, but it will also vote against the government in the assembly if needed.

The stability of the government will decide the speed at which government works. An unstable government will spend the bulk of its time and resources on planning its survival. Besides, the bureaucracy does not listen to political masters who are not in command, leading to inordinate delays in whatever ambitious plan the government might have for the development of the state.

So, if chief minister Fadnavis wants to regain credibility in the eyes of people, then he will act on one of his first utterances after assuming office: “I will act on advice of Modiji that, don’t run the government to survive in office; work in the interest of the people and even if you have to demit office, people will put you back in office."

This means he will have to immediately order an inquiry into corruption charges against NCP ministers and grant permission to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute people like former chief minister Ashok Chavan, named an accused by the CBI in Adarsh Housing Society scam and so on.

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