The Sena skipped the 2012 election to avoid ‘division of Hindu votes’, now wants to put up a fight against its warring ally, BJP
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena, which skipped contesting the 2012 Gujarat assembly election to avoid a “division of Hindu votes”, is now considering fighting the state polls amid increasingly choppy relations with its ally, BJP.
The Sena’s local leaders in Gujarat have had meetings with senior party leaders in Mumbai over the past one month saying they want to contest the forthcoming elections in the state.
Sanjay Raut, a Shiv Sena MP from the Rajya Sabha, said, “Local leaders in Gujarat have come to us saying they are fully prepared to contest this time. At this point we can say that we are actively considering contesting the election, but we haven’t taken a final decision yet. If we do decide to contest, we will do everything possible to put up a fight against the BJP.”
Although the Shiv Sena is a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and part of the BJP-led government in Maharashtra, relations between the two saffron allies have been increasingly bitter with the Sena playing an opposition’s role from the treasury benches.
Earlier this year, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray also met Hardik Patel, the face of the Patidar movement, at the Thackeray residence in Mumbai’s suburban Bandra. Thackeray praised Patel, one of the BJP’s most bitter critics, while the latter said he was a fan of Sena founder Bal Thackeray and will support the party whenever required. The two, however, did not specifically spell out any plans for the Gujarat election.
S.R. Patil, the Sena vice-president in Gujarat, is confident that the party will be in a position to contest about 100 of the 183 assembly seats. “Uddhav-saheb will take a final decision about whether to contest and how many seats, but we are ready to fight. We are just waiting for his green signal. The Shiv Sena is especially strong in south Gujarat and Saurashtra region,” Patil said.
He added: “Earlier, we were committed to an alliance with the BJP, but now the BJP has set aside Hindutva and is playing caste politics. People are stressed with inflation, but the ruling party is only concerned about publicity. It is a complete Hitler-shahi. The Shiv Sena’s stand is that we should teach such parties a lesson.”
Vilas Patil, Shiv Sena head for Surat, said his team has also identified potential candidates for the 12 legislative constituencies that directly fall under his ambit.
“We have a good chance of attracting votes this time. The Patidar agitation, after-effects of the Goods and Services Tax and disillusionment among backward classes are all working against the BJP and pro-Hindutva voters will not want to back the Congress,” he said.
Shiv Sena’s electoral performance in Gujarat, which has a sizeable Marathi-speaking population in certain pockets, has been lacklustre until now. In 1998, when the BJP’s 20-year-streak began, the Sena contested five seats, losing all, with a dismal vote share of 0.47 per cent.
Similarly in 2002, the party fought and suffered a drubbing in nine constituencies. In 2007 again, the Sena contested the polls, this time fielding candidates in 38 constituencies, but ended with a crushing defeat and 0.99 per cent of the vote share. In 2012, Thackeray declared that his party will not contest the election as he did not want to cause a fissure in pro-Hindutva votes.
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.
Now, with the BJP aggressively growing within the state, the Sena too has been looking to strengthen itself in other states. The party has, however, had a string of defeats, the latest being in Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab.