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Uddhav strikes a blow to MVA, goes solo in local polls

Jan 12, 2025 06:58 AM IST

Shiv Sena (UBT) will contest local elections alone, ending its alliance with Maha Vikas Aghadi, raising doubts about the coalition's future.

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena (UBT) has confirmed what it had only hinted at so far, that the party will contest local body elections alone. Senior party leader Sanjay Raut announced on Saturday that there will be no alliance with the opposition coalition, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), for these elections.

Uddhav strikes a blow to MVA, goes solo in local polls
Uddhav strikes a blow to MVA, goes solo in local polls

The Sena (UBT)’s decision has put a question mark on the future of the MVA although its alliance partners, the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (SP), played down the development. They pointed out that it was the convention to go solo in local elections, which was the case even when the MVA was at the helm in the state.

Raut told the media on Saturday, “Right from Mumbai to Nagpur, we will fight the elections (local self-government) on our own strength. We want to see what happens.” He underlined that the decision was taken to test the organisation’s strength at the grassroots level. “In an alliance, workers don’t get a chance to fight elections and this restricts the party’s growth. In local elections, the party grows stronger,” Raut said.

Although it is indeed the convention for political allies to contest local polls on their own, cracks in the MVA have widened into deep fissures after the recent assembly elections in Maharashtra. Some analysts are even wondering whether the opposition alliance can survive the finger-pointing and escalating tension between the allies.

Hitting out at Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar, whom he accused of playing a blame game over the MVA’s crushing defeat in the state elections in November last year, Raut said those who don’t believe in consensus and compromise have no right to be in an alliance. On the crumbling Congress-led INDIA alliance at the centre, Raut said, “It is the responsibility of the Congress to save the INDIA alliance. The Congress is the biggest party.”

The Sena (UBT) leader added that the INDIA block had been established to contest the Lok Sabha polls but not a single meeting had been held after the elections. Also, the alliance is yet to appoint a convener, said Raut, who added that the Sena (UBT) is supporting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the upcoming Delhi elections.

On the MVA appearing to come apart at the seams, the Sena (UBT)’s allies, the Congress and NCP (SP) trotted out the official line, stating that local elections are usually fought by parties on their own.

NCP (SP) chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said his party and the Congress were part of UPA-1 and UPA-2 in Delhi and Maharashtra, but at the district level, they fought against each other in order to expand their respective parties’ base. “Local self-government elections are for party workers. No party would want to do an injustice to its cadre. As far as the NCP (SP) is concerned, a decision like this is taken by local leaders. State leaders have little or no say in these polls,” he claimed.

NCP (SP) working president Supriya Sule concurred. “We always fight local polls separately. Otherwise, what will workers do? It is an election of party workers.”

State Congress working president Naseem Khan said, “There is a demand in our party too that local elections must be fought solo although our high command will take a final decision.’’ Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar said he would speak to Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, and if they were adamant on contesting alone, the “Congress’s path was clear”.

The MVA started out as a promising experiment, where the Congress had teamed up with the then undivided Shiv Sena and NCP after the 2019 assembly elections, to counter the growing dominance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the election, the Sena had forged a pre-poll alliance with the BJP but walked out on the partnership after the BJP refused to rotate the chief minister’s post.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar, a veteran of coalitions, took the initiative and the Sena joined secular parties to form an MVA government in Maharashtra. However, the government was toppled when Eknath Shinde engineered a split in the Shiv Sena with active support from the BJP in June 2022. The coalition was dealt another body blow when Ajit Pawar split the NCP, switching sides just like Shinde, in July 2023.

In the 2024 parliamentary elections, the MVA shocked the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance by winning 31 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra. Only months later, the MVA suffered an embarrassing defeat, from which it is yet to recover. It won a paltry 46 seats of the 288 in the state, while the Mahayuti coalition returned to power with 235 seats.

Several Sena (UBT) leaders believe that the party did not benefit from being a part of the MVA and demanded that they contest local polls on its own. They are believed to have told Thackeray that sticking with the MVA had already cost them a significant portion of the Sena (UBT)’s traditional vote bank.

Party insiders said that Thackeray was also upset because the Congress and NCP (SP) had refused to project him as the coalition’s chief ministerial candidate in the assembly elections, in which the Sena (UBT) won just 20 seats.

Meanwhile, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena believes the “MVA is on the verge of collapse”. Sena legislator Manisha Kayande remarked, “Mahayuti fought the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in alliance, and we are forming an alliance for the BMC polls too. The Shiv Sena (UBT) will suffer a huge defeat in the local self-government elections too.”

Raut praises Fadnavis, again

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut had words of appreciation for chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Responding to Fadnavis’s comments in Nagpur on Friday, that there are no permanent rivals in politics and that Uddhav Thackeray is not his enemy, Raut said Fadnavis is continuing Maharashtra’s tradition of maintaining cordial relations between parties although they can be political rivals. He also said if Fadnavis is doing something for the development of Maharashtra, his party will praise him. Raut had earlier praised Fadnavis for his efforts to develop Maoist-affected Gadchiroli district. Meanwhile Fadnavis said he was not concerned with whether or not the MVA allies stuck together.

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