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Shiv Sena plans to contest Lok Sabha elections in J&K, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar

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Shiv Sena is considering fielding candidates on 25 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 10 seats in Bihar and 1 seat from J&K.

Mumbai: Aspiring to be a national Hindutva party in character, the Shiv Sena is planning to field candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from not just its home turf of Maharashtra, but from at least three other states too.

The Bal Thackeray-founded party is considering contesting elections from states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and even Jammu and Kashmir, besides Maharashtra, senior party leaders told ThePrint.

“Although we have been contesting assembly elections in different states, we have never seriously contested parliamentary elections from outside Maharashtra until now,” said Sanjay Raut, senior Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP.

“We already have a base in these states. In fact, we recently won two municipal seats in J&K, so we are optimistic,” said Raut.

Shiv Sena sources said the party is considering fielding candidates on 25 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 10 seats in Bihar and one seat from J&K.

The Shiv Sena’s decision to contest from states other than Maharashtra comes at a time when relations between the party and its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been increasingly choppy and there is still uncertainty on whether the two parties will ally for the polls.

All the three states that the Shiv Sena is keen on are those where the BJP has been aggressively trying to win and retain its hold.

National character

Over the last five years, the Shiv Sena has been actively looking to expand outside Maharashtra, contesting assembly polls in states such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Bihar with more vigour, but without much success.

The party has also been trying to project itself as more committed to Hindutva than the BJP by demanding for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, and slamming its ally for going back on what was one of its pre-poll planks.

In November last year, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray even visited Ayodhya to reiterate his demand for the temple.

The Shiv Sena was until now mostly electorally inactive outside Maharashtra with there being an unofficial understanding between the BJP and Sena that while the former expands across the country, the latter retains its upper hand in the alliance in its home turf of Maharashtra.

However, with the BJP aggressively growing within the state, the Sena too has been looking to strengthen itself in other states.


Also read: Modi & Manmohan are no Bal Thackeray, says Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut on biopic race


Dismal performance

Shiv Sena is currently a recognised state party in Maharashtra and is far from getting the status of a national party.

As per Election Commission norms, to be recognised as a national party, a political outfit has to either win 2 per cent of seats in the Lok Sabha from three different states, poll 6 per cent of votes in four states in a general election to the Lok Sabha or the legislative assembly and win four Lok Sabha seats in addition, or get recognition as a state party in four or more states.

Until now, even its more serious attempts to contest assembly polls outside Maharashtra have drawn a blank.

Political experts say the party does not have the extensive organisational and administrative network that it has in Maharashtra in other states.

Besides, though the party has been emphasising its Hindutva agenda, essentially it is still seen as synonymous with the “sons of the soil” ideology in Maharashtra with a violent stand against migrants.

In 2015, the party contested 80 seats in the Bihar assembly election and polled 2.11 lakh votes. Although it did not win any seats, the Shiv Sena was thrilled with its performance in Bihar as it finished third in several seats.

Then in 2017, Shiv Sena suffered a drubbing in Maharashtra’s neighbouring state of Goa despite party chief Thackeray and Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray personally campaigning for their party.

The Sena had allied with Subhash Velingkar, the ousted Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader who had fallen out with the BJP-led Goa government, and contested three seats.

Besides losing all three seats, the party managed a paltry vote share of less than 2 per cent. Its performance in the Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab assembly polls the same year was no better.

Later that year, the party fielded candidates on 42 of the 182 seats in the assembly elections of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home turf, but polled less than 0.5 per cent in the seats it contested.


Also read: BJP’s latest olive branch for Shiv Sena — Rs 100 cr memorial for Bal Thackeray


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2 COMMENTS

  1. Plan for hijacking Ram Temple issue from BJP? Well, go ahead. Trying to step in the national politics as a new avtar of Hindutva carrier.

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