Uddhav to speak on future of alliance on foundation day

In what would be politically significant in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Uddhav Thackeray would address a huge gathering of party workers on Tuesday as the Shiv Sena turns 52.

The Sena chief will spell out the road ahead for the saffron outfit that is part of the BJP-led NDA coalition.

To commemorate the occasion, the Shiv Sena is holding day-long deliberations at the Nesco Complex at the Goregaon western suburbs in which the top leadership of the party and office bearers from all districts would be present.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of the by-elections to the Lok Sabha seat of Palghar where the Sena and the BJP contested against each other - despite being partners at the Centre and Maharashtra - though the latter won by a margin of over 29,000 votes.

Thereafter, BJP president Amit Shah flew to Mumbai and along with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met Uddhav and his son and Yuva Sena president Aditya. Shah and Uddhav also had a one-on-one meeting.

What transpired in the meeting is not yet known and neither the Sena nor the BJP had spoken about it formally.

The foundation day event has its own significance. When the party turned 50, on June 19, 2016, from the same venue, Uddhav had said it is not possible for him to predict till when the saffron alliance would last and the party must remain prepared to fight polls in its own strength.

Later, the Sena and the BJP contested the Mumbai civic polls against each other.

Similarly, when the party turned 51, the backdrop was the nomination of the then Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind for the presidential polls. Sena initially did not agree and floated the names of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan.

It may be recalled that going against the NDA view, Sena founder Bal Thackeray had supported the Congress nominees - Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee - in the presidential elections in 2002 and 2012.

While Patil got the support on the ground that she was a Maharashtrian, Mukherjee had personal relations with the Thackeray family.
On January 23, 2018, the sixth death anniversary of the Sena founder, the party decided that it would go alone in all future polls.