The humble autorickshaw-wala symbolises Uddhav Thackeray and Arvind Kejriwal’s contrasting political fortunes

While a defeated, bitter Uddhav Thackeray was relinquishing his job as the chief minister of Maharashtra, he made his final and possibly his costliest mistake. In his frustration, he made a jibe at Shiv Sena rebel MLA Eknath Shinde, who is the new chief minister.

“Those who ran autorickshaws and handcarts, we made them MPs, MLAs. Those whom I had given everything have done this,” he ranted.

Shinde used to drive autorickshaws and tempos before he joined politics. His phenomenal political rise boldly underlines his extremely humble roots.

In today’s politics, that is gold. The most illustrious example being that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s, who rose to political superstardom from helping out at his father’s little tea shop in Gujarat’s Vadnagar.

The river of India’s politics is at that bend where long-standing, drunk-on-entitlement dynasties are getting washed ashore. The Gandhi-Nehrus have shrunk the mighty Congress to barely 53 seats in Parliament and clinging to power by weakening threads in just a couple of states. Mulayam and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party has been routed in every election since 2014, making the son’s future a bit blurred like the weather in his favourite city, London. Lalu Prasad Yadav’s family is out of power, although Tejashwi did unexpectedly well in the last Bihar Assembly polls.

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There are rumours of a rift between Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek. The Abdullahs are in Kashmir’s white wilderness and so is Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s daughter Mehbooba Mufti. YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s government in Andhra Pradesh is getting increasingly unpopular, while K Chandrasekhar Rao and his two children have the new entrant BJP looming over the state.

DMK’s MK Stalin is the last successful face from the Karunanidhi family. Beyond him, there lies an abyss.

Recent developments in Maharashtra have put two political families in a serious succession crisis. Uddhav and his son Aditya are struggling to keep the reins of the party after the rebellion. With a chief minister’s stature and resources at his disposal, Shinde may snatch it from the Thackerays. In a time like this, Uddhav’s dynastic arrogance is deeply self-damaging.

His autorickshaw-wala jibe is also symptomatic of something else. In India’s Opposition space, the only party that is rising is Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP, which has a huge base among Delhi autorickshaw and taxi drivers. He gave them dignity by bringing immense political pressure on the Delhi police to not bully them. The gift of dignity, coupled with the occasional visit to homes of autorickshaw-walas, has ensured for him the loyalty of a silent but solid vote bank.

The contrasting political fortunes of Thackeray and Kejriwal captures one of the most defining political parables of our times, with the humble autorickshaw-wala as the protagonist. One disrespects the underdog and loses it all; the other expands his dominion by showing the underdog respect.

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