Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in Maharashtra.
Dismissing speculation over its return to the BJP-led NDA, the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Shiv Sena has reiterated its commitment to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in Maharashtra. Uddhav Sena which won nine seats in the Lok Sabha elections now stands as the second-largest party in Maharashtra, on par with the BJP. Whereas the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde managed to win only seven of the 48 seats in the state.
In a recent post on X, Priyanka Chaturvedi, a leader of Shiv Sena (UBT) and a Rajya Sabha MP, took a swipe at pollsters and journalists who had predicted a massive victory for the BJP. Chaturvedi used a popular meme to make her point. “Moye Moye. Ye na hoye (this won’t happen). You can roye roye (you can cry),” she wrote on X.
Earlier this week, Ravi Rana, an independent MLA from Maharashtra, had started rumours about Uddhav Thackeray’s potential return to the NDA fold by June 20. Rana, whose wife and former BJP MP Navneet Rana lost the Amravati seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, claimed, “I can confidently say… 15 days after Modiji becomes Prime Minister again, Uddhav Thackeray will be seen in the Modi government and with Modiji. The coming era is of Modiji and Uddhav Thackeray knows this. It is Narendra Modiji who is taking the ideas of Balasaheb Thackeray forward.”
Rana had even suggested that “leaders of the opposition MVA should keep blood pressure medicines and doctors with them… as many of them will fall sick on June 4”.
However, Sanjay Raut, a close aide to Thackeray, laughed off these claims. His colleague Arvind Sawant, a seasoned three-term MP representing South Bombay and a prominent figure in the Shiv Sena (UBT) also rejected the claims as “groundless.”
He said, “Uddhav Thackeray will never go back to NDA, not at all. There is no question of that happening. We don’t backstab our allies, that’s not the character of Shiv Sena. The backstabbing was done by them (referring to BJP).”
Sawant also denied the prospect of a ‘ghar wapsi’ (homecoming) for the rebel MLAs who defected from Thackeray’s faction in 2022, precipitating the split within the Shiv Sena. “Those people didn’t simply left the party. If they would have just left the party, it would have been fine. But they broke our party, they snatched our party, our party’s name and our symbol from us. Our real Shiv Sainiks do not want to see them again in our party. They will not be allowed to come back,” Sawant added.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra unfolded as one of the most extraordinary in its history. The factions of the Shiv Sena and the NCP contested against each other. The Shinde and Ajit Pawar factions were backed by the BJP, while the Thackeray and Sharad Pawar camps allied with the Congress.
The recognition of the Shinde and Ajit Pawar factions as the “real” entities, along with the allocation of party symbols, dealt a significant blow to the Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions. For them, the Lok Sabha polls became a test of both prestige and survival.
In the run-up to the elections, the Sena-BJP-NCP coalition, known as the Mahayuti, exuded confidence in securing a majority of seats. However, the BJP saw its tally plummet from 23 to nine, while Team Shinde secured seven and Ajit Pawar’s NCP clinched only one seat.
On the other hand, the Congress-Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)-NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) alliance emerged victorious in 30 constituencies. The Congress emerged as the frontrunner with 13 seats, while Team Uddhav secured nine, and Sharad Pawar’s party claimed eight seats.
