UDDHAV AND THE ART OF MANAGING CONTRADICTIONS

DESPITE THE SETBACKS, THACKERAY’S SENA UBT) STILL HAS THE SYMPATHY FACTOR GOING FOR IT. BUT IT’S AN UPHILL TASK, MANAGING THE ALLIANCE, WOOING NEW VOTER BLOCS AND KEEPING HIS CORE MARATHI VOTE INTACT

- Dhaval S. Kulkarni

A debilitating split in the party, a recalibration of political affiliations and a series of legal reverses. Things haven't been going well for Uddhav Thackeray since his partyman Eknath Shinde walked out of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government with 39 other MLAs and joined hands with the BJP in June 2022. Not only did it bring Thackeray's two-and-a-half-year chief ministership to an abrupt end, it left him and his faction-the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) or Sena (UBT)-with little to bank on except the sympathy vote of the Marathi manoos and the possibility of gaining a foothold among the minorities.

Armed with this righteous plank, Uddhav has been on the warpath against the Shinde-led government, even alleging that the provisions of the interim budget were "pro-contractor and anti-people". The Sena (UBT) leader has also been training his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's frequent visits to the state, suggesting the ruling coalition was getting anxious about its chances. This has, of course, raised the hackles of the BJP, with state rural development minister Girish Mahajan taunting Uddhav on February 28 about winning at least one Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra, saying "a cat doesn't become a tiger just by wearing its skin".