Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray is nowadays chanting Bhagwan Ram’s name day and night. His recent visit to Ayodhya demanding the BJP to go for the ordinance route in order to commence early construction of Ram Temple is nothing but an attempt to re-establish the lost supremacy of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra politics and also gain clout in the national politics. He wants to use Ayodhya to launch Shiv Sena 2.0 and Uddhav Thackeray 2.0 at a time when Shiv Sena is rapidly becoming irrelevant in Maharashtra.
Uddhav tried his level best to steal the show in Ayodhya from the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Uddhav Thackeray unabashedly played Hindutva card in order to get an edge over the BJP and other organizations and parties who claim to represent the interest of Hindus. He also played the emotional ‘Bal Thackeray’ card, excessively. Late Bal Thackeray’s image was plastered in all the posters of the Shiv Sena. Indeed, six years after the death of ‘Hindu Hriday Samrat’, the party still seeks support in Bal Thackeray’s name. Only the time will tell whether Uddhav’s Hindutva card and Bal Thackeray card will yield any fruitful result or not.
Although the Shive Sena and the BJP are alliance partners in Maharashtra government but in recent time Shiv Sena has acted more as an opposition rather than an alliance partner. Shiv Sena is a long-time member of India’s ruling National Democratic Alliance. But, during the last Maharashtra state assembly elections both the parties went their separate ways over seat distribution and contested elections alone. The Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the single largest party in the elections, but in order to get the throne of Maharashtra both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena coalesced again. Since then the Shiv Sena has been a ‘bitter frenemy’ of the BJP. It has failed to fulfil the role of a good coalition partner and acted more as an irritating opponent of the BJP.
Uddhav failed to realize the change of waves during the last Maharashtra assembly elections and still wants to act like a bigger partner in the coalition with the BJP. He wants to dominate the Maharashtra politics just like Balasaheb Thackeray used to do. But one thing he failed to understand is that he does not have the charisma like Bala Saheb. Bala Saheb was a man of principles while Uddhav behaves like all other stubborn dynast politicians. That’s why his dreams to dominate Maharashtra politics were shattered. Uddhav is frustrated because Modi-Shah duo’s smart politics first reduced him to play second fiddle in the alliance, and now Fadnavis’ political acumen is pushing him to oblivion. Time and again, he issued many immature statements that only goes on to show that he is still in the kindergarten of politics.
After the state assembly elections, the BJP focused on increasing its clout in Maharashtra and Shiv Sena, in their blind hatred for the BJP, ended up losing their footprints in Maharashtra politics. Under the questionable leadership of Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena is increasingly becoming irrelevant in Maharashtra. After the Maharashtra state assembly elections, the BJP contested many elections without Shiv Sena and it has delivered splendid performance in all those elections. In Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the BJP faced Shiv Sena and the NCP-Congress coalition and it surprised everyone with its splendid performance. The BJP ended the monopoly of Shiv sena in BMC. It had won whopping 82 seats out of 227 and Shiv Sena managed to win 84 seats and thus forcing the Shiv Sena to make BJP a partner in every major decision. The BJP has continued delivering outstanding performances in Zila Parishad elections and Gram Panchayat polls. With its performance, it has outsmarted Shiv sena, NCP and Congress.
The words of Thomas Paine perfectly define the likes of Uddhav Thackeray. Thomas Paine had said, “One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.”
Under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray, the donations to Shiv Sena declined from 86.84 crores in FY16 to 25.65 crores in FY17. According to a report by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), the donations to AGP, SAD, JDS, MNS, and AAP saw maximum increase in FY 16. Although Shiv Sena (SS) leads with Rs 25.65 crore from 297 donations followed by AAP, the donations to Maharashtra based party has decreased significantly while other regional parties like AAP, SAD saw a substantial increase. This comes at a time when the political clout of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra is weakening. The party was not very strong in the hinterlands of the states. Even earlier, its support base was limited to Konkan regions which consist of Mumbai city, Mumbai suburban, Thane and Raigadh districts. But the rise of BJP in Maharashtra with the party getting its first chief minister in the state, has weakened the clout of Shiv Sena significantly. The incompetent Uddhav Thackeray got the reins of the party after the sad demise of Balashaeb Thackeray. The donors no longer see future of the party in the hands of Uddav Thackeray and his equally incompetent son Aditya Thackeray.
The Konkan region which is the historical stronghold of the party is slowly slipping away to BJP. The Marathi youth in Mumbai could no longer be appeased by the anti-migration rhetoric of the party. The non-Marathi population constitutes majority of the population in the metropolitan and they are not going to vote for Shiv Sena in any case. The Gujarati people makeup almost 20 percent of the city and they have completely moved to BJP due to their inclination towards PM Modi. The youth is happy with the performance of Devendra Fadnavis who is considered the face of the new economy of the country. He is implementing many infrastructure projects for the city with the help of the central government. The great city of Mumbai did not have a Metro till 2014 which itself epitomized how badly the city was ignored by its politicians.
Since the advent of the BJP chief minister in power after Maharashtra assembly election, the Shiv Sena has only registered decline and Uddhav’s recent visit to Ayodhya and his demand to start construction of Ram Temple as soon as possible is seen as his last attempt to revive the popularity and appeal of Shiv Sena once again in Balasaheb Thackeray’s style. Considering that Shiv Sena is left with no discernible support base whatsoever, any possibility of revival seems remote at this time.