Maharashtra BJP on back foot after Congress, NCP seal alliance

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, February 23

With the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party announcing that the two would jointly contest the 2019 elections to defeat the NDA in Maharashtra, the BJP has been put on the defensive.

Leaders of the saffron party are now keen that the BJP leaders woo the Shiv Sena and somehow prevent a split in the Hindutva votes in the forthcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. “Both the BJP and the Shiv Sena will be losers if we contest the elections separately,” a Mumbai BJP leader admitted.

The BJP and the Shiv Sena broke their 25-year old alliance ahead of the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections hours after the Congress and the NCP dissolved their alliance. The break-up saw both the BJP and the Shiv Sena increase their seats while the Congress and the NCP were badly mauled at the hustings.

Though the BJP and the Shiv Sena joined hands yet again to form the government, the relations between the two parties continue to be strained. Shiv Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ continues to pour venom against Prime Minister Narendra Modi though its attacks on Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has slowed somewhat.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray who resolved to contest the 2019 elections without allying with the BJP has already forced Fadnavis to reach out to the regional party. Recently, the Maharashtra government agreed to put the West Coast refinery proposed in Ratnagiri on the back burner after Thackeray took up the cause of the project-affected villagers.

The compromise however caused some heartburn in the BJP which got its own back by not inviting the Shiv Sena leadership for the function to commence work at the Navi Mumbai airport. The sharp attack from Saamna which followed only indicated that rapproachement, if any, will be a slow process.

The Shiv Sena leadership too will have to contend with a disgruntled party cadre should it tie up with the BJP again. In recent months relationship between Shiv Sena and BJP workers at the ground level have deteriorated so much that political observers feel that both groups will not be able to work together in the next elections.