Why does Shinde rebellion hit so hard? A look at Shiv Sena's history

The political crisis in Maharashtra has made one thing clear: In politics, you never know when your grip on power could loosen.

Eknath Shinde, a lesser-known politician nationally, dealt a severe blow to the current Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by the Shiv Sena. Shinde claimed that he had the support of 40 to 50 MLAs and reports confirmed that 'Sainiks' were continuing to join him in Guwahati, where the BJP government seemed to be providing tacit support and protection.

Shinde's rebellion is not the first that the far-right Shiv Sena has seen. Before him, the party saw at least three more rebellions. The Shiv Sena earlier shared a love-hate relationship with the BJP, an ideologue partner that the party is now trying to protect itself from.

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Here's a brief look at the party's history:

The Shiv Sena, literally meaning 'Army of Lord Shiva', was founded by Bal Thackeray in June 1966. The party was the brainchild of his father Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, who was an active participant in the movement for a united Maharashtra (Samyukta Maharashtra Movement) during the linguistic reorganisation post-Independence.

From the beginning, the Shiv Sena had one ideology: Stout Hindutva with a specific focus on Maratha nationalism. The party leaned toward regional exclusivity for the Marathas and was against migrants settling down in the state. Today, the party continues to uphold its belief in the superiority of the Marathas and Marathi culture.

A statement on the Sena's official website said: "…people from other states kept on migrating, creating discord and disrespecting the community and culture of the locals, therefore creating an environment of lawlessness in the state. This evoked Prabhodhankar Thackeray's son Bal Thackeray to start Marmik, a political weekly with cartoons and sketches that spoke in detail of the grave injustice towards the people. But the thought didn’t end just there. He wanted to take the anger against this inequality, especially the outrage coming from the youth, to do something against the abuse towards the local people of the state. After seeing the tremendous support towards his thoughts in the weekly, he decided to establish Shiv Sena on 19th June 1966, to bring the people together, to fight against the oppression of the Marathi people."

Between 1950 and 1960, Bal Thackeray established himself as a political cartoonist during his stint with The Free Press Journal. He founded Marmik in 1960 to keep the focus on the injustice meted out to the 'Marathi Manoos'.

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After its formation, the party held its first mega rally at Shivaji Park in October.

In 1968, the party won 42 out of 140 seats in the Brihanmumbai (then Bombay) Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls. Bombay became Mumbai in 1985 and within a year, the party embraced the Hindutva ideology. In January 1989, the Sena launched its mouthpiece Saamana.

The Shiv Sena forged an alliance with the BJP for the Lok Sabha elections in 1989 and the state Assembly polls the next year. The Sena won 52 seats in the Assembly polls and became the main Opposition party.

In 1991, the party suffered a setback after Chhagan Bhujbal, a former mayor, quit to join the Congress, reportedly upset at the appointment of Manohar Joshi as the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. This was the first wave of dissent that caused ripples in the Sena fabric, one that echoes among the rebels even today.

Bhujbal was one of the Sena’s oldest members, elected from Mazgaon Constituency, and the party's OBC face. Bhujbal, along with 18 MLAs, left the party and decided to support the Pawar-led Congress, which was in power at the time.

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The Shiv Sena came into further prominence in 1992 during the Babri Masjid demolition. Party supremo Balasaheb Thackeray said it was the work of loyal Shiv Sainiks: "Babri padli, ti padnarya Shiv Sainikancha mala abhiman ahe" (I am proud of the Shiv Sainiks who razed Babri).

After this, Mumbai witnessed rioting from 1992 to 1993 for which a report from the Srikrishna Commission tabled in the Vidhan Sabha indicted Bal Thackeray.

The Sena-BJP alliance cemented victory in the 1995 Assembly elections and retained power until 1999. Manohar Joshi was sworn in as the chief minister followed by Narayan Rane in 1999. The Shiv Sena remained in a partnership with the BJP at the Centre under the National Democratic Alliance as well.

On May 25, 1999, three former Congress leaders - Sharad Pawar, P.A. Sangma and Tariq Anwar - joined hands to form a new party under the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) name. They had been expelled from the Congress for disputing Sonia Gandhi's credentials to become the party leader.

After the Assembly polls resulted in a fractured mandate in 1999, the NCP decided to support the Congress and formed the Democratic Front coalition, taking over the reins of Maharastra from the Sena-BJP government. The alliance remained in power until 2014.

Vilasrao Deshmukh became the CM and Chhagan Bhujbal the deputy CM. Bhujbal, who is currently part of the MVA government under Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership, got Balasaheb arrested in 2000 over a piece in Saamana about the 1992-1993 Mumbai riots.

In February 2003, Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena got its new heir - his son Uddhav Thackeray, the current leader of the party. His name was proposed amid intense competition with Balasaheb's nephew Raj Thackeray to be the late leader's successor. Raj Thackeray himself proposed Uddhav's name.

With Uddhav's growing prominence, with whom he didn’t see eye to eye, Narayan Rane revolted against the regime. He said that party tickets were sold to candidates and challenged Uddhav’s leadership. Rane was then expelled for anti-party activities.

Rane went on to join the Congress, which he quit in 2017 to form his own outfit. He later decided to support the BJP in 2018, from where he was nominated for the Rajya Sabha.

Around the same time as Rane's exit, another Sena stalwart broke away from Bal Thackeray’s army - Raj Thackeray.

Raj announced his resignation and blamed the lack of democracy within the Sena for his decision. Many believed that Raj would succeed Balasaheb as the Shiv Sena's heir but he formed his own party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in 2006.

Even though MNS scored zero seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, it managed to eat into the vote share of the Sena and the BJP as it also positioned itself as a Maratha-reclaimant Hindu force.

After this, the differences between the BJP and the Sena continued to grow. In 2014, the BJP got the highest seats in the Vidhan Sabha polls due to the Modi wave that spread across India. There were parleys between the Shiv Sena and the NCP about whether they could secure the magic number. Eventually, Sena MLAs joined the BJP to form the government under the leadership of Devendra Fadnavis. The partners remained together until 2017 when Uddhav announced that the Sena would henceforth contest all polls alone.

The year 2019 was a landmark year in the state's politics when the Maha Vikas Aghadi government (MVA) was formed with unlikely partners the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress. The BJP, which singlehandedly won the most seats (106), was left out. In a dramatic turn of events, the MVA declared Uddhav Thackeray as its leader.

Eknath Shinde’s rebellion would be the fourth that the party has experienced but the most potent so far. Shinde and his camp cited issues with the Sena's alliance partners and the unavailability of Uddhav as reasons for the split. Shinde and Co. said they would carry forward Bal Thackeray's legacy and their aggressive ideology, which they believe had been muted and overshadowed by the NCP and the Congress.

While experts are divided on whether the rebels will join the BJP or form their own outfit under founder Balasaheb's name, one thing is clear: The Shiv Sena has never looked weaker than it is today.