Shiv Sena-BJP reunion not possible, says Raut
MUMBAI: Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s frontal attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) indicates that the party has shut its doors on any possible reconciliation with the former ally, said senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut.
“His speech gave one message that the grand alliance between Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena is the political future of Maharashtra,” Raut said referring to Thackeray’s address to the party cadre on the birth anniversary of party supremo Bal Thackeray.
“The speculations about under-the-table dealings and discussions with the BJP have been scotched. In his speech on 23 January, Uddhav Thackeray made a strong attack on the BJP. Thackeray had never exposed the BJP’s pretentiousness and fake Hindutva to this extent,” Raut wrote in his weekly column in the party mouthpiece Saamna.
He also pointed to Thackeray’s statement that the alliance with the BJP since 1989 had hindered the Shiv Sena’s growth.
“Uddhav Thackeray’s speech
and Devendra Fadnavis’ reply to it has cleared the air of confusion that was prevailing in Maharashtra’s politics. The doubts about Thackeray and some leaders being secretly in touch with the BJP, and the present government being a temporary arrangement, have been cleared. Now, coming together is not possible, and Fadnavis’ reply in stern language, shows that the window (of rapprochement) is not open,” said Raut.
“The politics of Maharashtra has changed completely. The picture suggests that this change (the MVA government) will stay for the next 25 years,” he claimed.
Raut further said that while Hindutva could not be the monopoly of any political party, it was only Sena supremo Bal Thackeray who had espoused an aggressive form of the ideology.
Reacting to the column, BJP MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar attacked Raut for claiming the longevity of the MVA and pointed to how the Shiv Sena’s performance in the recent local body elections was sub-par. “They were eager to ally with us for the past two years, but the BJP spurned these overtures. The day Shiv Sena compromised on Hindutva, BJP had decided that it would not ally with them again. Raut has realised this after two years,” he claimed.
Shiv Sena was traditionally the senior and dominant partner in the saffron alliance with the BJP. However, BJP parted ways with Sena on the eve of the 2014 assembly elections and emerged as the single-largest party. Though the Shiv Sena joined the Devendra Fadnavisled BJP government later, it was forced to play a second fiddle to the BJP.
The two parties contested the 2019 assembly elections together. However, they parted ways following a dispute over sharing of the chief minister’s post. Sena later joined hands with traditional rivals NCP and Congress to form a government under Thackeray.