Jai Maharashtra!

Collaborating with an ideologically compatible political party like the BJP would have made the Sena play second fiddle and robbed Uddhav Thackeray of the Chief Minister’s post. So he did the unthinkable if his father, mentor, and founder of Shiv Sena were alive and decided to snap his party’s relationship with the BJP and align with a more left-leaning and the so-called secularists, the Congress, and the NCP.

The drama was queered by the defection of NCP’s Ajit Pawar over to the BJP and his buckling under emotional blackmail by his family members. He returned to the NCP and was rewarded the deputy chief minister’s post. The governor of Maharashtra kept everyone on tenterhooks, challenging his neutral role and position, siding with the BJP dispensation led by Devendra Fadnavis.

It is a surprise how the three ‘not-on-the-same-page’ parties on most issues survived for two years and seven months under Uddhav Thackeray. The Sena leadership forgot a crucial factor: the disappointment and simmering discontent of their hardcore Hindutva cadres, who have fought the Congress and the minority parties all along. They had to tolerate characters like Nawab Malik, and the rise of crime syndicates was perceptible, often involving the Home Minister and the top brass in the police.

Recalcitrant Sena leaders like Sanjay Raut closed all the doors of rapprochement with the BJP, even opposing the BJP party on issues like Ayodhya and Gyanavapi with their acerbic taunts. They did not spare PM Narendra Modi, with utter disregard for the reaction of their party rank and file to such actions.

A sizeable section of Sena legislators have broken away today, and it may not be possible to appease and make them turn around like the Ajit Pawar. The Sainik cadres groomed with certain political philosophies and sworn to right-wing ideologies seem in turbulent mid seas, with AIMIM leaders supporting the MVA and Sena deviating from its fundamental beliefs. The revolt and the rebellion came, therefore, as no surprise. With Raj Thackeray digging his heals and Uddhav’s novice son being upped on the dynastic political ladder, Uddhav forgot to assess the mood of his close colleagues and will be paying the price.

Calling the BJP indulging in horse-trading is wide off the mark, as it is politics to uproot the opposition. Ajit Pawar’s action became chivalrous merely because he decided to return to MVA. Even if CM Uddhav manages to survive this headcount, he knows he has lost many followers who are dying to get back into the BJP and to their original political manifesto.

If there is a beginning, there is an end as well.

Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix