SENA RETHINK ON DIVORCE IS UNLIKELY

The BJP may draw cold comfort from its victory in Palghar, where a divided opposition worked to its advantage.

But it will now be nagged by a bigger worry: the possibility of the Shiv Sena getting drawn into the anti-BJP formulation, which has been spurred by the recent success of the ‘rainbow’ coalition in UP.

Not only will the Sena find it difficult to scale back its strident anti-BJP rhetoric, the fault lines will also deepen with Uddhav Thackeray blaming the Election Commission for the EVM mess. The bitterness is likely to vitiate the otherwise ‘cordial’ relations between Uddhav and CM Devendra Fadnavis. This may be political posturing, but the Sena is already talking of contesting the next election independently, as it does not want to be impacted by the rumblings of the anti-BJP incumbency.

The outcome in Bhandara-Gondiya, which has gone to the NCP-Cong combine, will also help rein in the ‘pan-Maharashtra’ aspirations of Fadnavis, said media sources. Post 2014 election, the BJP has made concerted efforts to be seen and treated as the dominant party; the Sena sees in this a devious BJP ploy to share the political space with its ally on its own terms.

While Balasaheb was alive the Hindutva agenda had served as a glue but with the weakening of the plank, the Sena is adrift. The BJP has tried to isolate the Shiv Sena further, smug in the belief that no other party would like to share the political space with the Sena in view of its strident Maharashtrian agenda.

On the other hand, the equation between the NCP and the Congress, which was disturbed after the 2014 election, may stabilise at a new level after the win in Bhandara-Gondia, a seat that the BJP had won in the previous election.

The Palus Kadegaon assembly seat had already been ceded to the Congress nominee, after the Shiv Sena declared its support for him and the BJP withdrew from the contest.