The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday asked TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and JDU’s Nitish Kumar to remember how the BJP “treated” them and if they want to join hands with an “autocrat”. As things shape up after the Lok Sabha election results, the support of these two leaders is key to the formation of the next NDA government.
“Chandrababu Naidu should remember how the BJP had treated him. Nitish Kumar should remember what kind of treatment was meted out to him. Not a single penny was given by the BJP to Chandrababu Naidu when he wanted to develop Amravati as the capital. We are hopeful. Everyone should try to form the government. What is the harm? They were speaking of BJP ‘400 paar’… Now, they speak of NDA. Their language has changed. If needed, Uddhav Thackeray, too, will come to Delhi,” said Sena leader Arvind Sawant.
Meanwhile, Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray has decided to skip the all-important INDIA bloc meeting at the national capital later in the evening. The NDA is also going into a huddle with its allies for government formation talks. The former Maharashtra chief minister has delegated senior leader Sanjay Raut to be the party’s representative for the opposition meeting.
Raut, who was talking to reporters earlier, said his party will not oppose if Congress leader Rahul Gandhi decides to lead the INDIA bloc government and be the prime ministerial face. The alliance leaders will meet in New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss the further course of action.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should accept that he has faced moral defeat as his party did not get a majority to form the government and that the Modi brand is now finished. “Chandrababu and Nitish Kumar have to decide whether they want to go with an autocrat and work in a democratic system. I don’t think they will go with an autocrat,” Raut said. “Modi ji is not forming a government for the third time.”
What does Uddhav’s absence from the INDIA bloc meeting mean?
Uddhav seems to have reinvented himself as well as his party after severing ties with old ally BJP and throwing his lot with the Congress and NCP. But, is his absence from the INDIA meeting going to be a subtle indicator about where his true political affiliation lies?
Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, after all, is a natural as well as the oldest BJP ally due to their core ideology of Hindutva. And now that the son has delivered a competent performance as part of the INDIA bloc, will he consider a different path ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls?
Under his leadership, however, the Sena has transformed from an aggressive party espousing Hindutva into a liberal political outfit wooing Muslims, Dalits and non-Maharashtrians. During his two-and-a-half-year stint in the state’s top job, his detractors mocked him as a “work from home” CM, but he succeeded in connecting with the people through Facebook live sessions during Covid.
But, a rebellion by his close aide Eknath Shinde in June 2022 shook Uddhav and his party to the core. He announced his resignation in another Facebook live session without facing a trust vote in the assembly, a decision that drew massive criticism. But, after losing the post, and also the party name and electoral symbol (which were awarded to the Shinde-led faction), Thackeray bounced back, capitalising on a sympathy wave.
He emerged as the face of the opposition’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which also includes the Congress and Sharad Pawar-led NCP. Once criticised for not stepping out of his house in Mumbai’s Bandra area, he criss-crossed the state in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, and his rallies attracted huge crowds.
In the seat-sharing deal with the allies, he had his way and got the largest chunk of 21 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra, and he has now managed to win three of the four seats in Mumbai but lost Raigad, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Thane and Kalyan. In Mumbai, he proved the party cadre was still with him but the same could not be said of the rest of the Konkan region.
The MVA on Tuesday won 30 out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. The Congress won 13 seats, a quantum jump from the solitary seat it won in the state in 2019, while the Shiv Sena (UBT) won nine and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) got eight seats. The BJP and allies got 17 seats.
(With PTI inputs)
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