By Kavita Mistry 
Mumbai: In December last year, after being dropped from the Mahayuti 2.0 cabinet, a miffed Chhagan Bhujbal had told media persons outside the Nagpur Vidhan Bhavan that ministership has come and gone multiple times, but has never affected “the phenomenon that is Chhagan Bhujbal”.
Five months later, he has made a comeback as a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis-led cabinet, taking oath Tuesday to fill in the spot vacated after Dhananjay Munde from Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) resigned, following graft allegations.
It almost appears to be a like-for-like replacement.
Munde is a leader from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) from Beed. Bhujbal is considered to be a much more senior OBC leader in NCP, and one of the community’s strongest political faces in Maharashtra.
Sunil Tatkare, Maharashtra unit president of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, told reporters Tuesday, “The party takes some stands. There are various difficulties from time to time. The party’s core group had internal meetings during which we had discussions and took this decision (of bringing Bhujbal back in the cabinet)”.
According to political commentators and party leaders, with local body polls expected to be held this year, ignoring Bhujbal and inviting his ire was not something that the Mahayuti could have afforded.
The Mahayuti coalition comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP.
Under the first Mahayuti government led by Shinde, Bhujbal held the food and civil supplies department, which had been given to Munde under Mahayuti 2.0. With Munde’s resignation, the department is likely to go back to Bhujbal.
Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of his swearing-in ceremony, the new minister said, “I will accept whatever department the CM and deputy CM give me. I have been serving as a minister intermittently since 1991. I have handled all departments, even home. I can handle any department given to me.”
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Three factors behind Bhujbal’s comeback
A leader from the Ajit Pawar-led faction of NCP, who did not wish to be named, said there were three main reasons that the party considered when deciding to bring Bhujbal back in the cabinet.
A big factor was the “indisputable” argument that Munde’s replacement had to be from the OBC community, while the second closely related one was Bhujbal’s seniority as an OBC leader.
“There were many OBC aspirants within the party, who thought that Munde’s resignation would bring an opportunity for them. Picking one over the other would have caused friction and disillusionment within the party, just when we are preparing for local body polls. Picking someone as senior as Bhujbal has silenced them all,” the leader told ThePrint.
The third, and perhaps the most significant reason, was the Supreme Court’s direction to the Election Commission to hold all pending local body polls within four months.
With Munde’s image having taken a hit, following the arrest of his close aide for the alleged murder of a sarpanch in the Beed district, the NCP needed a big well-known leader to campaign for the party within the OBC community.
With Bhujbal pacified, the party can use him as one of the faces leading its campaign across the state.
“When Bhujbal was dropped as minister, he made his resentment with the party leadership amply clear on multiple platforms. There were even rumours that he could join the BJP. But, he stopped short of severing his ties, and also attended a few NCP meetings, which means he must have been given an indication that he would be accommodated at some stage in the cabinet,” political commentator Hemant Desai said.
“With Munde’s resignation, and without Bhujbal being prominently involved, Ajit Pawar’s NCP faced the risk of wearing the image of a Maratha party. Moreover, NCP doesn’t have many good orators. Bhujbal fills that gap as well.”
Bhujbal’s rise in politics
Bhujbal had humble beginnings—starting as a vegetable vendor in Mumbai’s landmark Crawford Market, when he joined the Shiv Sena in the 1960s. He steadily rose through the party’s ranks with his aggressive style that suited the Shiv Sena’s street politics back then.
Bhujbal—known to be the blue-eyed boy of Bal Thackeray—became a corporator in Mumbai in 1973, the Mumbai mayor in 1985, and subsequently, the only Shiv Sena legislator in the Maharashtra assembly.
However, there were two reasons why he fell out with the Shiv Sena and its founder. He expressed support for the Mandal Commission’s reservation policy for the OBCs, which Bal Thackeray had decided to oppose, and secondly, the party leadership decided to name senior leader Manohar Joshi, a Brahmin, as the leader of the 52-member legislative group of the party, bypassing Bhujbal.
In December 1991, the Shiv Sena saw its first major rebellion, when Bhujbal walked out of the party with a group of supporters to join the Congress under Sharad Pawar’s leadership. When Sharad Pawar formed the NCP, Bhujbal followed suit.
Bhujbal had also drawn the ire of Shiv Sena leaders by getting Bal Thackeray arrested in 2000 in connection with his writings regarding the 1992-93 riots. He was then the deputy chief minister and home minister under the NCP-Congress government.
His troubles first began in the mid-2000s, when his name got embroiled in the Telgi stamp paper scam, which led to him losing the position of deputy CM. He was investigated, but not named in the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
After the Congress-NCP government returned to power in 2004, Bhujbal became the state Public Works Department (PWD) minister, and eventually the deputy CM again in 2008. It was this stint of Bhujbal’s that got him into trouble.
In 2016, when the Fadnavis-led government was in charge, Bhujbal was put behind bars for alleged corruption in the construction of the Maharashtra Sadan building in Delhi during his tenure as PWD minister. He was released on bail in 2017.
In 2021, a special court discharged Bhujbal, his son Pankaj, nephew Sameer, and five others in the case.
In July 2023, Bhujbal was among the senior-most leaders to rebel against the Sharad Pawar-led NCP under nephew Ajit Pawar’s leadership to join the Shinde-led government.
The 77-year-old has served in multiple Maharashtra cabinets, been deputy CM on two occasions, and an MLA for multiple terms. He currently represents the Yeola assembly constituency in Nashik, which he has won five consecutive times.
In December last year, when Bhujbal did not find a place in the Mahayuti 2.0 cabinet, the disgruntled leader had said, “Jahan nahi chaina, wahan nahi rehena (I don’t want to stay where I have no peace).”
On Tuesday, the newly sworn in minister said to reporters, “All is well that ends well.”
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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