The after-effects of Maha Vikas Aghadi's disastrous electoral defeat in Maharashtra assembly elections are showing. Senior leaders of Shiv Sena (UBT) have advised their party chief Uddhav Thackeray to come out of the Aghadi (alliance).
Reports say, when Uddhav was in a meeting with all MLAs and defeated candidates on Wednesday, several of them told him that it would not be wise to contest elections relying on alliance partners. They said, the party should now go alone in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections and in polls to 14 other city corporations and local bodies.
These leaders told Uddhav Thackeray to cut off ties with Sharad Pawar's NCP and Congress. They told him that had the party contested the assembly polls alone, it would have won more seats. The most vocal among these leaders was Ambadas Danve. He said, the alliance with the two other parties has proved costly and the alliance lost because of "too much overconfidence" after the Lok Sabha elections.
Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut tried to control the damage caused by Danve's remarks, and said the defeat was due to EVM tampering. He said, the three parties would remain united in the local body polls too.
For Uddhav Thackeray's party leaders seeking to cut off ties with Congress is natural. The DNAs of Shiv Sena and Congress are quite different. Late Balasaheb Thackeray had forged his party, Shiv Sena, as a big Hindutva force, and it was because of this that Shiv Sena was the natural ally of BJP for several decades. In his quest to become the Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackeray changed direction and this has hurt the party badly.
On the other hand, Eknath Shinde gauged the feelings of Shiv Sainiks correctly and did not change his ideological line. He spoke of Balasaheb's Hindutva ideology openly during the recent assembly polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a dig at Uddhav Thackeray during his campaign and challenged him to make Rahul Gandhi described Balasaheb Thackeray as "Hindu Hriday Samrat".
Uddhav Thackeray could not explain to Shiv Sainiks why Shiv Sena joined hands with Congress, a party that questions Veer Savarkar's patriotism. Uddhav's colleagues are now trying to persuade him to go back to the Hindutva line. They are bluntly telling Uddhav that if Shiv Sena has to continue its existence in Maharashtra politics, it has to carry on with Balasaheb's ideology. The first condition for this is to break off its relationship with the Congress.
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