Shiv Sena has gone through drastic changes since the sad demise of Hindu hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray. Many political pundits predicted that the party will not remain relevant under the weak leadership of Uddhav Thackeray because he was never seen as a rightful heir to the legacy of elder Thackeray. The person who was expected to lead the party after the retirement of Balasaheb was his nephew, Raj Thackeray, but he left to start his own political outfit in 2006. The party has been able to sail through despite the weak leadership of Uddhav Thackeray due to its alliance with the BJP. Riding on Modi wave Shiv Sena won 18 seats in 2014 general elections but Uddhav Thackeray is delusional enough to think that he commands power in Maharashtra and is unsure if it should go solo or fight alongside BJP in the upcoming election.
The Shiv Sena MPs want to ally with BJP because they believe the party has been weakened in the recent years due to the rising political clout of Narendra Modi and Devendra Fadnavis. Another thing which worries Uddhav Thackeray is that the electoral base of Shiv Sena and BJP overlaps to a large extent, so the fight between the two will be for voters on the right side of the political spectrum. To woo the voters on the other side of the political spectrum, Uddhav Thackeray is using many tactics. For instance, in Palus-Kadegaon constituency by-polls, the party supported Congress candidate Vishwajeet Kadam. “Rahul Gandhi today is not the same as he was in 2014. He has become a strong-minded person after bearing so much criticism. He can pose a challenge to the BJP in 2019 and the Gujarat Assembly polls have proved this”, said Shiv Sena. In the national executive meet, early this year, the party announced it will fight the 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections alone.
In August this year, Uddhav Thackeray said, “Apart from the Marathas, reservation demands of Dhangars, Muslims and other communities should also be taken into account”. Under the leadership of Balasaheb the party always had an anti-quota and anti-appeasement stance but under the leadership of Uddhav, the party does not have a clear-cut stance on any issue. The talks of alliance with NCP were going on but NCP leader Praful Patel ruled out any possible alliance with the Shiv Sena. The anti-Modi stance and weak leadership of Uddhav Thackeray has made him unpopular among voters as well as corporate. The donations to Shiv Sena declined from 86.84 crores in FY16 to 25.65 crores in FY17. The party is losing election after election after it broke its alliance with the BJP, it lost Lok Sabha bypoll in Palghar and many municipal elections across the state. The party also weakened considerably in Mumbai which has remained its main stronghold over the decades.
Uddhav Thackeray has made small U-turns by supporting NDA in No Confidence Motion (NCM) and Deputy Rajya Sabha Chairman Election. This is perhaps because he is left with no options other than going with the BJP. The parties are not ready to go with Shiv Sena, the popularity of the party and donation has declined over the last few years due to weak leadership and political mismanagement of Uddhav Thackeray. Now it will be interesting to see whether Uddhav Thackeray will succumb to the pressure of the MPs and ally with the BJP or stand firm on his decision to go solo.
