For a party that has been so dominant in national politics over the last decade, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is incredibly spineless. They seem to have no self-respect and are willing to bring anyone and everyone on board despite their past record.
The fact that the BJP tied up with Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) just after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked him for his alleged involvement in an irrigation scam was bad enough. But now, something even more strange is being described as possible by insiders.
The Maharashtra BJP and the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis are, as per reports, considering bringing Shiv Sena (UBT) into their Mahayuti (alliance). After Uddhav Thackeray and Fadnavis met each other at an event, Thakre, responding to queries about their meeting, said, “Yeh andar ki baat hain (This is between us).”
Bringing Uddhav Sena into the ruling alliance would be foolish, even by BJP’s standards. This party, which shamelessly turned its back on the legacy of the indomitable Bal Thackeray, and kowtowed before the Congress, is staring at political irrelevance. Its symbol and name has been taken away by Eknath Shinde and the results from the last Vidhan Sabha elections (20 seats) have pushed it to the brink of extinction.
Shinde, though he made a fuss about giving up the Chief Ministership, has been a loyal and an ideologically-aligned ally of the BJP. Not to forget, it was the BJP itself who engineered his split from the united Shiv Sena.
So, what is the need of courting a nearly-finished and discredited party like the Shiv Sena (UBT) for the BJP? Perhaps, Shinde is not proving to be as simple an ally as before and is sulking after being relieved of his CM post. However, SS (UBT) was notoriously provocative for the BJP even when it was in alliance with it during the 2014-2019 period.
Its most prominent voice in the media and Parliament, Sanjay Raut, who is also the editor of its mouthpiece ‘Saamna’, had acted as a troll against the BJP consistently during Fadnavis’ first tenure as CM. The Saamna had gone as far as joining the Congress party in floating the ‘Rafale Scam’ theory. It had regularly attacked the PM without any concern for ‘Coalition dharma’.
Yet, the BJP, which has given up on self-respect seemingly, is allegedly pining for Thackeray and Raut’s companionship once again. If this actually transpires, this alliance would serve as the ‘Sanjeevani’ for SS (UBT). A party on its way to disappearance would be resuscitated by the BJP and given the freedom to mock and ridicule it once again.
Why would the BJP want to do it? The only possible explanation would be to cut Eknath Shinde down to size. But is that necessary? Even if the reports regarding Shinde being a difficult ally are correct, is he, by any stretch, worse than the Uddhav Sena was?
Though they don’t seem to care too much about this, but ideological considerations should also force the BJP to prefer Shinde over Thackeray. Having jumped on the ‘Secular’ wagon of the Congress Party and become a beneficiary of ‘Muslim vote’ in the Lok Sabha elections, Uddhav Sena shouldn’t be seen as a desirable factor. Shinde is bound to remain wedded to the Hindutva plank, hence should be tolerated even if he has shown some airs of late.
It would be both ideologically and practically stupid at a monumental level to bring Uddhav Sena back from the state of political irrelevance. However, BJP’s record in the last 10 years suggests that this may not be out of the realms of possibility for it.