UDDHAV'S MEGA MINORITY RAPPORT

THE EX-CM HAS REVIVED HIS ATTEMPTS TO TAKE HIS PARTY BEYOND ITS CORE MAHARASHTRIAN SUPPORT BASE

- Dhaval Kulkarni

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Around two decades after he first launched a short-lived project to expand the Shiv Sena’s base, Uddhav Thackeray has revived his attempts to forge a wider rainbow coalition and take his faction of the party—the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)—beyond its core Maharashtrian support base.

The party hopes that this effort, which has seen the Sena revive its outreach to Buddhist Dalits, Muslims, and Hindi speakers in Mumbai, will help them gain incremental votes from the “majority of the minority,” as it fights to retain control over the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)—India’s richest civic body—which is vital to stay relevant after the debilitating split in the party. The BJP and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who induced a vertical split in the party’s legislative and parliamentary wings, are girding their loins to wrest the BMC from the Sena. The Election Commission has recognised the Shinde faction as the official Shiv Sena and allocated it the party name, as well as the bow and arrow symbol.

In 2003, Uddhav, then the newly-appointed working president of the Shiv Sena, launched two major campaigns. These were the ‘ShivshaktiBhimshakti’ initiative to reach out to Buddhist Dalits, with whom the Sena once had a bristling relationship, and ‘Mee Mumbaikar’ to strike roots among other linguistic denominations, especially the growing Hindi speakers in Mumbai, with an eye on the assembly polls the next year.