The decision of the Shiv Sena (UBT) to go it alone in the municipal elections in Maharashtra reflects another major schism in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the INDIA bloc at the national level.
It was not for the best of political reasons that the Shiv Sena, which has its roots in the hardline Hindutva and Maratha pride politics, joined hands with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to form MVA; it was the simple question of chief ministership that prompted Uddhav Thackeray and his party to break free from the NDA of which it was a founding member.
However, as a member of the Opposition bloc, Shiv Sena appeared to have graduated to the centrist politics and steadfastly opposed the BJP along with other Opposition parties on issues like the weakening of the constitutional institutions. The Maharashtra alliance which let the NDA win only 17 of the 48 seats from the state played a major role in stopping the saffron alliance from getting a majority in the present Lok Sabha.
The unexpected routing in the Assembly elections has, however, created a larger rift within the alliance for obvious reasons. The Shiv Sena (UBT), a regional party, has much more stake in the Assembly election than in the Lok Sabha poll and an alliance which has failed to deliver at the crucial test is of decreased importance to the party. The next important election that can offer it access to the levers of power is the one to the cash-rich civic bodies and it will be very logical for the Shiv Sena (UBT) to go back to its hardline politics to win back its votes.
It is the job of the Congress and the NCP (SP) to be realistic about the pressures their ally faces in the civic polls, confine the damage to the coalition to the minimum and see that the estrangement is only limited to this occasion. The larger challenges the Opposition faces call for a joint effort, and the allies should be able to convince the Sena to see eye to eye in due course.
