Familiar Bedfellows

Political compulsions and backroom political management by Chief Minister Fadnavis bring the Shiv Sena and the BJP together again.

- Dnyanesh Jathar

SHIV SENA CHAIRPERSON Uddhav Thackeray prefers to travel in his own vehicle. But on February 18, he shared a ride with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in his SUV. Uddhav sat in the back, flanked by his son Aditya and BJP president Amit Shah, while Fadnavis was on the front seat, as they drove from the Sena chief’s residence Matoshri in suburban Bandra to Hotel Blue Sea in Worli. The mood was relaxed. Uddhav and Fadnavis were seen sharing a laugh. It was a sign that bonhomie was back in the relationship between the BJP and the Shiv Sena after a gap of four and a half years. The Sena and the BJP soon declared that they would contest the upcoming assembly and Lok Sabha polls as allies.

The relations between the BJP and the Sena hit a rough patch after the BJP chose to go it alone in the 2014 assembly elections. The BJP won 122 seats while the Sena ended up with just 63 seats. After sitting in the opposition for about a month, the Sena joined the government, but on the BJP’s terms. The Sena did not get the post of deputy chief minister nor any of the plum portfolios.

The Sena leadership subsequently became one of the fiercest critics of the state and the Central governments. Editorials in Saamna, the party mouthpiece edited by Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, never missed an opportunity to criticise the BJP. The exchange of verbal blows grew so worse that a few months ago, Uddhav used the Congress slogan ‘chowkidar chor hai’ to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi.