Maharashtra: Shiv Sena is exacting revenge

As Shiv Sena is on the verge of breaking ties with BJP, it seems to be a well-thought-out decision, though risky.

Given the fact that with prime minister Narendra Modi, and Union home minister and BJP president Amit Shah called the shots for Sena Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, it was a calculated move.

In 2014, both parties contested the polls separately but came together after the elections, that too after BJP formed the government with Devendra Fadnavis, then just 43, at the saddle as CM.

The first humiliation was when Sena was denied the deputy CM's chair.

As a matter of fact, the ally with lesser number of seats has occupied the deputy CM's post including in the erstwhile Sena-BJP government between 1995-99 when late Gopinath Munde was the No 2 and held important portfolios including home.

Late Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and late Pramod Mahajan were very clear - the party with more seats gets CM's chair and with lesser seat the deputy CM's post.

The same tradition was continued by the Congress-NCP Democratic Front from 1999-2014 when the Sharad Pawar-led party held the post.

But, in the second edition of the saffron alliance, BJP turned down the post of dy CM.

The second humiliation was when important portfolios like home, revenue, urban development, housing, water resources were denied.

In fact, the thinking in Shiv Sena top leadership was: "They deny us the Deputy CM's post now (2014), we will take the CM's post next time (2019)."

In February, when Shah came to seal a package deal for Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls, the Sena has out the demand of 50-50 power-sharing and inclusive of rotation of CM's chair for two-and-a-half-years each.

While Sena leadership went to the town claiming that they will get CM's chair (for a full term or half the tenure), BJP leadership never acknowledged.

After the Lok Sabha polls, Fadnavis asserted at the fag-end of the last Assembly session: "Mee punha yaeen, Mee punha yaeen, Mee punha yaeen! (I will return)".
The Sena listened silently, though some leaders may have sniggered privately and thought "We will see how!"

To counter BJP, Sena launched Uddhav's son Aditya in electoral politics. They also coined the slogan 'hech teh vel' (this is the time) for new Maharashtra.

The bitterness was evident when BJP and Sena held separate statewide tours - Maha Janadesh Yatra and Jan Aashirwad Yatra.

The final point was when, according to some senior Shiv Sena leaders, BJP tried to engineer a split in Sena.