The party, known as one of the country’s most vociferous regional outfits under his father Bal Thackeray’s leadership, is now being dwarfed in its own home state by the BJP.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray celebrates his 57th birthday.
His party, known as one of the country’s strongest and most determined regional outfits under his father Bal Thackeray’s leadership.
The Sena’s vote bank in Maharashtra is under threat now, a glimpse of which was seen during the February election to the Mumbai civic body when the BJP emerged just two seats short of the Sena.
The Sena squad is restless within the BJP-led Maharashtra government, of which the Shiv Sena is a part, and is itching to get even with the BJP in the state.
While political analysts believe the Shiv Sena will emerge much stronger out of the situation if Thackeray assertively decides to snap ties with the BJP for good and walk out of the government, the leader is aware that mid-term polls will not bode too well for his party at the moment.
Biding time till 2019, Thackeray has consciously positioned his party as an opposition within the government, while maintaining a bitter-sweet relationship with the BJP. He has been focusing on strengthening his party in rural Maharashtra, traditionally a stronghold of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), with frequent visits to rural districts and interaction with voters there.
The party is taking up issues such as farmers’ crisis and agricultural land acquisition for the chief minister’s pet Mumbai-Nagpur expressway that concern the mass electorate.
A large span of Uddhav Thackeray’s political career has been marked by doubts and challenges. He has braced challenges right from when Bal Thackeray named his polite, soft-spoken son over as the Sena’s successor over his charismatic and aggressive nephew Raj Thackeray to when the Sena founder died leaving the party’s ropes single-handedly in Uddhav’s hands.
The leader is at a juncture when he faces what is perhaps the biggest challenge in his political career until now in battling the zealous, resourceful and hungry BJP, which is eyeing the Sena’s pie.
How Thackeray steers his party over the next two years and performs in the 2019 assembly election will be the next test of his mettle.
Birthday greetings to Shri Uddhav Thackeray ji. May he be blessed with good health, long life & a successful year ahead.
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) July 27, 2017
