The twists and turns of the sordid L'affaire Maharashtra would rival the plot of a Hollywood mystery thriller, it culminated in the appointment of a de jure chief minister and a de facto super CM who would actually discharge duties as the remote control for the man supposedly at the helm.
The deputy CM of the State was sworn in at the last minute after being coaxed, cajoled and coerced by the BJP high command. For the saffron party, anointing a Shiv Sena man as CM would lend credence to their ultra-hollow claim of not being power hungry, further it would protect the BJP from any direct criticism from both the opposition and public at large against any performance issues the new government would face.
In one stroke they have decimated the Shiv Sena as an aspiring pan India political force and on the other have virtually captured power of India's richest state.
The Sanghis next step would be to win the BMC elections by hook or by crook and lay their hands on the world's richest municipal body with a kitty of @ Rs 40,000 crores.
The sense is that over time they will erase the last vestiges of Shiv Sena by engineering further defections.
