The BJP is viewing with equanimity the declaration by its oldest ally, the Shiv Sena, that it would go it alone in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and also in the Assembly polls in Maharashtra.
Senior leaders of the party said they were “not surprised” by the declaration but “would not ask any Shiv Sena minister, either in Delhi or Mumbai, to give up their seats.” While senior Maharashtra BJP leader Ashish Shelar said that “even we (the BJP)” can go it alone in the polls, the leadership in Delhi viewed the development with a less than urgent eye.
The BJP-Shiv Sena relationship has been rocky ever since the BJP, in 2013, insisted on having its own workers manning polling booths on the seats where the BJP was contesting in Maharashtra. The decision, incidentally, was made by Narendra Modi in his first meeting with the Maharashtra unit after being declared the BJP’s campaign in-charge for the 2014 polls.
“This was a declaration that the BJP wanted to consolidate its own strength, especially after the death of Balasaheb Thakeray,”said a senior Maharashtra BJP leader who had been present at those meetings.
When the Assembly polls in the state came around in the latter part of 2014, the BJP, now riding the Modi wave, wanted to renegotiate the terms of seat sharing. “We told them that they may still claim the Chief Minister’s spot but we wanted to contest an equal number of seats. They refused and we contested separately, and as you know, we formed a government without their help,” said a senior leader in the BJP.
“The Shiv Sena has been unable to deal with that and other realities of the post-Balasaheb Thackeray situation,” said the source who had been in the thick of these negotiations.
Subsequent local body polls have also shown no dilution in the BJP’s basic contention that its ground support in the state has outstripped that of its quarter of a century-old ally. “When it comes to the Sena, we have taken a long-term view. Despite all the threats, they are a part of the Maharashtra and Central government. And we can always expect that they will, for the sake of a united Hindutva front, do an about turn. We look at it as a wife threatening to run back to her maika (mother’s house),” said a top source in the party.
Indeed, the BJP’s attitude to the Sena’s grandstanding has been that of giving a long rope. “Do you see the names from the Shiv Sena on the list of ministers serving the state and Central government? If yes, then they are still part of the NDA. It is the only indication that counts,” said a senior leader.
