In a surprising yet unexpected turn of events, the BJP and Shiv Sena have announced their alliance in Maharashtra in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. They have decided on a seat sharing formula wherein the BJP will be contesting 25 seats and Shiva Sena will be contesting 23 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. In polls for the 288-member state assembly due this year, the two parties will contest an equal number of seats after allotting allies their due share of segments. The rift between the BJP and Shiv Sena, the original Hindutva outfits, has finally been breached after years of efforts being taken to sort out the differences.
The two parties had been in an alliance since 1989 after the Sena moved from advocating a pro-Marathi ideology to supporting a broader Hindu Nationalist agenda. For 25 years, the two parties contested the Lok Sabha elections, assembly elections and the BMC elections together. The two parties together formed a government in Maharashtra between 1995 and 1999. From 1999 to 2014, they were together again as the principal opposition. The BJP patriarchs Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani shared a very good relationship with the Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray, although the BJP was always the junior partner in Maharashtra. The 25 year old alliance between the BJP and the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra came to an end in 2014 before the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. This was after failing to reach an agreement on the number of seats to be contested by each party even after hectic negotiations. Riding high on the ‘Modi wave’, the BJP won 23 seats while the Shiva Sena was left with 18 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Following that in the Assembly elections, by winning 122 seats in the 288-member Assembly, almost twice the seats the Sena got, the BJP showed that it was no longer the junior partner in the alliance. Since then, the differences grew to an all time high and the Sena has been seen as proxy opposition to the BJP – both at the Centre and in the state.
The Chief of the Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray has been under internal pressure to team up with the BJP in the up-coming elections for quite some time. A sizeable section of the Sena’s 18 MPs were pushing for an alliance along with at least four Sena members in the Devendra Fadnavis government in the state. Shiv Sena MP, Shivajirao Patil stated that the MPs are in favor of the alliance. But the party sought to achieve the alliance on the 1995 model wherein BJP would be made the junior partner in Maharshtra. In reply to this expectation, BJP gave a clear indication that they are not going to stand down in front of its allies.
Following the announcement of the alliance, BJP president Amit Shah said that grassroot-level workers of both parties were eager for an alliance and BJP and Sena shared a common ideology based on Hindutva and cultural nationalism. He stated, “This is not just a political alliance, but one based on principles. The two parties have fought for decades on the issues of Ram temple, national security and cultural nationalism and also attained victories. I am sure we will win again,” Mahrashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis stated that the parties have come together in wider public interest, as, in principle, both the parties are pro-Hindutva. Thackeray and Fadnavis agreed that the Ram temple has been the common thread for alliance between BJP and Shiv Sena and is going to be built at the earliest.
Congress, evidently panicking after the announcement of the alliance, announced its Lok Sabha election campaign along with NCP and some allies like Jogendra Kawade. Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, leader of the opposition in the state assembly, on Monday alleged that the Shiv Sena has joined hands with the BJP out of ‘fear of the enforcement directorate’. He also went on to state that, ‘BJP has lost its self-esteem and that the fear of loss is evident in the party’. He made tall claims on how this is ‘a selfish coalition for the sake of power’ and that BJP was ‘striking alliances in one state after another’ and wondered whether it was “grand adulteration” or ‘grand fear’. This statement by congress is hilarious after their own announcement of a ‘Mahamilavat’ with any party who is willing to go against BJP, the only similarity being that of rich people trying to promote their dynasties. It’s ironic how such parties can dare to point a finger on alliances stemming from like-mindedness and common ideologies, whose sole motive is to unite the people.