Why Suresh Prabhu Was Wise to Ditch Shiv Sena

(Rana Ayyub is an award-winning investigative journalist and political writer. She is working on a book on Prime Minister Narendra Modi which will be published in 2015.)

Union cabinet minister in the present government Anant Geete and newly appointed Cabinet minister for Railways Suresh Prabhu seem to have their destinies intertwined.

In August 2002, when Prabhu resigned from the post of Power Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government over differences with his mentor Bal Thackeray, it was Geete who succeeded him.

On a Sunday in 2014, Geete, the lone Sena representative in the government was said to be on the verge of resigning from his post after the BJP-Sena stand-off, while Prabhu joined the government.

There is a back story to the elevation of Prabhu, seen as a favourite of Narendra Modi. The leader, who had been working as a consultant with major international organizations since 2004, was said to harbour the desire to be the Shiv Sena's choice for cabinet minister in the current government. This was around the time the Sena was bargaining with the BJP for cabinet berths in May 2014.

With an absolute majority, the BJP was unwilling to grant two cabinet berths to the Sena and tried to placate the latter with the Heavy Industries Ministry. The current crop of senior Sena leaders who surround Uddhav Thackeray advised him not to trust Prabhu; they called him an "opportunist".

Anant Geete once again emerged as the consensus candidate and like his one-time friend and contemporary Manohar Joshi, Prabhu was relegated to the fringes. He had no say in party politics and decision-making, with Shiv Sena leaders dismissing him as a man without ideology, fit only for boardroom meetings, power deals and corporate setups.

Snubbed by his friend and confidant Uddhav Thackeray, Prabhu sent feelers to the Modi dispensation through his industrialist friends and the PM appointed him to head a high-level advisory group for Integrated Development of Power, Coal and Renewable Energy for reforms in the power sector.

Whispers in the current dispensation point towards the "help" of his close friend and political stalwart from Maharashtra, NCP chief Sharad Pawar. The Prime Minister's Office, which had at that point asked for Prabhu as a minister in place of Geete, promised him his rightful place in a cabinet reshuffle.

With the Shiv Sena reluctant to offer support to the BJP-led Maharashtra government, the BJP's emissaries last week asked Uddhav to support the government in Maharashtra in exchange for a cabinet berth to Suresh Prabhu. Uddhav Thackeray who had already asked Prabhu to resign from the advisory committee was enraged at the prospect of the BJP imposing its choice on the Sena.

With his destiny just a signature away, Prabhu made his decision and conveyed to the PMO that irrespective of the Sena decision, he would serve the PM, even if that meant resigning from the Shiv Sena
Sena leaders who I spoke to on Sunday morning insist that they were on the verge of sacking Prabhu from the party but to ensure that they did not project an image of rebellion within the ranks, the decision was postponed.

The man who was in 2002 humiliated by his party for his self indulgence as a cabinet minister had, it seems, finally got his due.
It was believed that Vajpayee was pained at Prabhu being asked to resign from his cabinet but had to bow to the Sena patriarch's diktat. Bal Thackeray it was reported wanted to remote control the Power ministry. Prabhu, troubled with the constant interference, had asked his friend Uddhav to help ease the tension with his father.

However, things went out of control when another strongman from the Konkan belt, Narayan Rane, who was becoming increasingly powerful, asked the senior Thackeray to send a man to Delhi who could work for the party and not for himself.

In Delhi circles, Prabhu began to be called the Power Minister without "power". His colleague in the government, Manohar Joshi, who held the Heavy industries portfolio could not use his position to benefit the Sena. His ministry carried almost no clout with disinvestment of industries like Maruti and Prabhu was expected to help the party secure heft in Delhi through his office.

There were headlines about Bal Thackeray giving Prabhu a dressing down over the appointment of the Power secretary. He was called back. The Sena mouthpiece Saamna said, "There have been reports of differences between Balasaheb Thackeray and Suresh Prabhu, because of which he (Prabhu) resigned from the cabinet. Prabhu has been recalled for organisational work, in the same way as Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu in the BJP."

This episode could have well ended the career of Prabhu, but for Sharad Pawar who had famously bailed him out in the past from controversies. While writing a profile of Sharad Pawar in 2009, I once asked Suresh Prabhu at a corporate office in south Mumbai if his friend wielded the power that was attributed to him. The soft-spoken Prabhu, described as a simple man by his friends, replied "He is a good friend to many."

There are those in Maharashtra and the corporate circles who call Prabhu a milder version of Sharad Pawar where political negotiations are concerned. In 2012, when Sharad Pawar, the then Agriculture minister, indicated that he would pull out of the UPA government, it was Prabhu who facilitated a meeting with leaders like Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik for talks of a possible third front at the Krishi Bhawan.

With the Shiv Sena hell bent on writing its political obituary, Prabhu could not have made a better decision. Power finally seems to have come back to the man who might want to term his return as a heavyweight in the current government as poetic justice.

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