Shiv Sena Breaks Free

Tired of “BJP bullying”, a Hindutva-plank ally resolves to go it alone in the 2019 polls.

- Kiran D. Tare

There was jubilation outside Mumbai’s Sardar Patel Sports Complex on January 23 as the Shiv Sena’s national executive announced its decision to ‘go it alone’ in both the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra assembly polls in 2019. Although a reiteration of Uddhav Thackeray’s November 2o16 announcement, the party made most of the occasion—Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s 90th birth anniversary—in formally articulating its refusal to brook the “BJP’s bullying games” any longer.

Analysts say the Sena’s resolution marks the culmination of its growing disillusionment with the Devendra Fadnavis government over the mishandling of the farm loan waiver and, more recently, the Dalit protests across Maharashtra. As a senior Sena leader put it, “Uddhav is no longer prepared to carry the badge of Fadnavis’s failures on his shoulders.”