Ambadas Danve, a little-known leader from Aurangabad, is Shiv Sena’s surprise pick for the position of leader of opposition (LoP) in the legislative council. In fact, he has been chosen over seniors like former transport minister and Uddhav Thackeray’s confidant Anil Parab.
However, the legislature secretariat’s decision to recognise 52-year-old Danve, a first-term MLC from Aurangabad-Jalna, for the LoP post overriding the claims of Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party has riled Sena’s allies.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led party, which has suffered a split and lost power following the rebellion by chief minister Eknath Shinde, is banking on Danve, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) man, to shore up its fortunes.
When five of the six Sena MLAs in Aurangabad district jumped on the Shinde bandwagon, Danve stood by Thackeray with leaders like former MP Chandrakant Khaire and former MLC Kishanchand Tanwani. As one of the party’s spokespersons, Danve was a familiar face in the media during the political crisis.
“He was originally a BJP worker and was in touch with me even when he was too young to vote,” senior BJP leader and former assembly speaker Haribhau Bagade said. Bagade is the MLA from Phulambri constituency in Aurangabad district.
Danve, who has his base in Aurangabad, is one of the four sons of Eknathrao Danve, who worked in the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation. He was associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP, and its youth wing, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in his younger days.
The Danve family hails from Jategaon in Phulambri taluka though they are said to have shifted to Karnapura on the outskirts of Aurangabad city later.
His associates said that in 1998, factionalism in the BJP saw Danve at the receiving end of Jaisingrao Gaikwad Patil, a close associate of Pramod Mahajan and Gopinath Munde, who ran the party’s affairs in Maharashtra. Danve was initially close to Patil, and later shifted his loyalty to Bagade. Eventually, he was terminated from the BJP. “He waited for six months to be reinducted. But when that did not happen, he joined Sena,” a BJP leader, requesting anonymity, said.
In 2000, Danve won the municipal elections as a Sena nominee from Ajabnagar in Aurangabad city. He was appointed as the leader of the house, but was asked to step down due to intra-party rivalry.
“But he continued to persevere in his loyalty to the organisation and was later appointed as the party’s district chief. In 2019, he was asked to contest the legislative council polls, but he demurred and finally acquiesced,” one of his associates in Sena said. In the elections, he defeated Baburao Kulkarni of Congress.
Balasaheb Thorat, president of Sena’s Aurangabad city unit, lauded Danve’s sense of discipline. “Danve has risen from the ranks. He is someone who tries to keep the organisation in fine fettle and ensures that workers are on their toes.”
In the forthcoming elections, Danve has the responsibility of ensuring that Sena retains the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation that it has controlled since 1988. This is an emotive issue for the party as Aurangabad and the larger Marathwada region, which has a history of communal discord, was where Sena struck its roots in the late 1980s outside its traditional catchment in Mumbai and Thane.
It was during this period that was characterised by the growing animosity between the Hindus and Muslims in the backdrop of issues like the Shah Bano judgement and the Ram Temple agitation that the late Sena supremo Bal Thackeray reinvented himself as a ‘Hindu Hriday Samrat’.
In 2019, Sena’s old war horse and four-term MP Chandrakant Khaire faced a shock-defeat at the hands of Imtiaz Jaleel of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. Sena held the seat from 1989 to 1998 and from 1999 and 2019. Khaire’s loss was attributed to the presence of Sena rebel Harshavardhan Jadhav in the fray. Jadhav is said to have weaned away a significant chunk of votes from the Maratha community.
Now, Danve is seen as Sena’s probable candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Traditionally, party leaders in the city have hailed from non-dominant groups within the Hindus like Moreshwar Save (OBC), Tanwani (Sindhi), and Khaire (SC). Danve’s strong identity as a Maratha will also give Sena a majoritarian touch in the city, boosting its electoral prospects.