Shiv Sena: A Phoenix that resurrects itself, at least so far

In its over five-decade long history, the Shiv Sena faced four major revolts which split the party, but every time, the regional saffron party which swears by the cause of the 'Marathi-manoos' and espouses the cause of Hindutva has managed to resurrect itself.

Four major rebellions have been led against the Sena since 1991. The first was lef by by Chhagan Bhujbal, the second in 2005 by Narayan Rane (2005), the third by Raj Thackeray, in 2005 and 2006, The fourth one is heralded by minister Eknath Shinde.

While Bhujbal, Rane and Shinde rebelled when late Balasaheb Thackeray was at the helm, this is the first mutiny which Balasaheb's son and current Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray faces.

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Incidentally, the three earlier rebellions took place when Shiv Sena was in the Opposition. Shinde’s rebellion comes when the Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government was well settled.

The Shiv Sena was founded on June 18,1956 and has slowly grown over the years. It has a very big grassroot network. Balasaheb used to say that Shiv Sena is about 80 per cent social work and 20 per cent politics.

Veteran Mumbai-based political observer, journalist and writer Prakash Akolkar, who closely follows Maharashtra politics and the Shiv Sena, said that this time around the dent seems to be bigger. “But Shiv Sena has cadres, they have an emotional connection with the Thackeray family and it knows how to resurrect itself,” says Akolkar, who has written the first-ever biography of the party.

Also read | Maharashtra crisis: NCP stabbed Sena in the back, discussions with CM on this were in vain, says Shinde

According to him, while more than two-third MLAs are with Shinde now and more than 50 per cent of the MPs are in touch with the rebel camp, what needs to be seen is how many Zilla Pramukhs, Mumbai Vibhag Pramukhs, Taluka Pramukhs, Shahar Pramukhs and Shakha Pramukhs are with the rebels.

Bhujbal, who led the first revolt, was a veteran OBC leader and a Mumbai Mayor. Bhujbal walked out with 18 MLAs to join the Congress—under the leadership of Sharad Pawar—but soon majority of the legislators returned.

Bhujbal was upset because Manohar Joshi was made the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. He lost the Mazgaon seat to Shiv Sena’s Bala Nandgaonkar.

Later he became the Leader of Opposition in the Council after a Shiv Sena-BJP alliance came into force between 1995 and 99, initially headed by Joshi and then by Rane.

Incidentally, Nandgaonkar later became the Minister of State for Home, but walked out when Raj Thackeray launched his own party.

After 1999, Pawar founded the Nationalist Congress Party after was expelled by the Congress. But when the Assembly polls threw up a fractured mandate, the Congress and NCP formed the Democratic Front government, which ruled the state from 1999-2014 till the Narendra Modi wave swept it out.

Read | Ask for votes in your father’s name, not Balasaheb’s: Uddhav

In 1999, Rane became the Leader of Opposition but he never ironed out his differences with Uddhav and launched a banner of revolt that utimately led to his expulsion.

At that time it appeared that the party would split vertically but that did not happen. Rane joined the Congress to become the Revenue Minister and later the Industries Minister. But, the Congress never fulfilled the promise of making him the chief minister or MPCC president. Rane even lost the polls from his seat in the Konkan region.

In 2018, Rane quit, formed the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha (MSP), joined the BJP-led NDA and became a Rajya Sabha member. He is now the Union MSME Minister.

Though Raj Thackeray proposed Uddhav for party president in the Mahabaleshwar conclave, the differences between the two cousins were not resolved.

He came out of the Shiv Sena fold in 2005 and raised the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on March 9, 2006.

Though the MNS did not win any seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, it damaged the prospects of the Sena-BJP saffron alliance in Mumbai in the Vidhan Sabha polls, after winning 11 of the 288 seats by snatching votes.

In 2014, the MNS did not win a single seat in the Lok Sabha polls but managed just one seat in the Assembly.

Also read: Uddhav chairs Shiv Sena's national executive meet; all eyes on action against rebels

In 2019, Raj’s party did not contest the Lok Sabha polls but addressed a dozen rallies targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah and became close to NCP-Congress. However, in the Vidhan Sabha, he got only one seat.

2019 was a turning point when Sena broke away from BJP and joined hands with Congress-NCP to launch Maha Vikas Aghadi.

Raj who initially spoke of Marathi-manoos in 2019, has now adopted the Hindutva stand and raised the Azaan-loudspeaker issue.

On Shinde's coup, enough has been said but more remains to be seen since the numbers he claims to have seem enough to topple the current regime in power.