Eknath Shinde (left) staged a rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray in 20222 which led to Shiv Sena's split.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Maharashtra is going to a single phase polling on November 20 with the counting of votes scheduled for November 23, a day before the term of the current 288-member Assembly ends.
The state will see a direct fight between the ruling Maha Yuti combine which includes Shiv Sena (Shinde), BJP and NCP (Ajit Pawar) drawn against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and Nationalist Congress Party NCP (Sharad Pawar).
Much water has flown down the Godavari since an NCP-Shiv Sena-Congress government under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in after the 2019 Assembly eelctions.
Though BJP and Shiv Sena were pre-poll allies, BJP, being the largest party (105 seats) in the Assembly refused to cede the Chief Minister's post to Shiv Sena, who had won only 56 seats.
A political coup of sorts happened with Shiv Sena, joining hands with ideologically different combined opposition of Congress and NCP, forming a government under Uddhav's leadership under the MVA umbrella.
However after three years, the coalition experiment collapsed with Eknath Shinde splitting the Shiv Sena, taking a major chunk of the MLAs with him.
To understand the Sena split of 2022, it is also crucial to know the roots of the party and its core ideology.
As Mumbai, then Bombay, grew as a city, migrants from all over India started to pour in. Based on the anti-migrant sentiments, a famous cartoonist, Balasaheb Thackeray, founded Shiv Sena in June 1966.
Shiv Sena, founded as a right wing and pro-Marathi party, made Balasaheb a stalwart in Maharashtra politics. Gradually, the party embraced the Hindutva ideology and thus, its proximity to BJP grew. Shiv Sena became a staunch BJP ally and remained part of the BJP-led National Democratic Allaince (NDA) till 2019.
The MVA government formed in 2019 ran into trouble from Day 1 as Uddhav’s ideological leap did not sit well with a faction of Shiv Sena.
Shinde was a long-time Sena worker and the then-Public Works Department Minister in Uddhav Cabinet. Shinde largely kept a low profile until his turn to steal the limelight in July 2022, as he along with a major chunk of Shiv Sena MLAs left the MVA and shook hands with the BJP to reunite the saffron ideology and the rest as they say is history.
A flurry of legal battles followed after which the Shinde faction was recognised and granted the 'Bow and Arrow' symbol and party name 'Shiv Sena', by the Election Commission.
Uddhav has challenged the ECI decision and the court battle is still going on.
Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.
Subscribe and follow DH on Whatsapp, X, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram to never miss out on anything.