The dilemma of narrow minded mentality

 

The politics of the state has reached a new turning point after assembly elections. Senior leader Sharad Pawar, Congress and UBT are in a dilemma of what role they should play at this juncture.

Among these three parties of Maha Vikas Aghadi, the dilemma in front of Uddhav Thackeray is completely different. The politics of the state has reached a point, where the Congress and Sharad Pawar’s NCP have no other future than to play the role at opposition benches. But, the same juncture has left Uddhav Thackeray most confused. With the highest number of MLAs UBT becomes the main opposition party in the Legislative Assembly.

If the Congress and Sharad Pawar  allow, UBT can even get the post of Leader of the Opposition in the legislative assembly. But, with his statements and actions, it seems like Uddhavrao Thackeray could not decide whether to accept the role of opposition party leader or not.

Uddhavrao, who was dreaming that the Maha Vikas Aghadi will come to power once again in the state, has yet to recover from the shock given by the voters. UBT has been terribly shocked because Mahayuti has got 232 seats rather than the fact that only 20 of his MLAs could win the elections. It has often been seen that he does not have the ability to digest the ups and downs in politics.

In fact, from 1999 to 2014, Uddhav Thackeray was in the opposition along with the Bharatiya Janata party. But, Uddhavrao did not face many problems, while in the opposition for 15 consecutive years at that time. The main reason behind that was Shiv Sena supremo respected Balasaheb Thackeray was alive till 2013.

Respected Balasaheb was not very active in public meetings, etc because of his ill health back then. However, the control over important political decisions was in the hands of respected Balasaheb only. Respected Balasaheb and BJP leaders Pramod Mahajan and Gopinath Munde had decided the seat sharing formula for Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in late 1990’s.

Making changes in this seat sharing equation flexibly in accordance with the changing situation, is called political wisdom.  In every election held after 1990, respected Balasaheb often took an aggressive stand while sharing the seats with the BJP. But at the same time he was also cautious that the alliance will remain intact.

But, since 2014 assembly elections, Uddhavrao has repeatedly shown his narrow mindedness by displaying his ego instead of self-respect.

Alliances are inevitable in politics. Both the parties have to face both good and bad consequences of such alliances. Uddhavrao wanted only and only benefits from this alliance. He was looking at this alliance with the expectations that he should get all the profits and a friend should bear all the losses and therefore eventually UBT Sena had to face the inevitable consequences.

The BJP leadership had avoided criticising the Shiv Sena leadership harshly even after the alliance broke down in 2014 elections. BJP won 123 seats in that election. BJP-Shiv Sena fought separately in Mumbai Municipal Election 2017. Shiv Sena won 84 seats, however BJP also showed its strength in Mumbai by winning 82 seats.

During the seat sharing discussion, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had arrogantly said that, ‘your worth is not more than 60 seats.’ BJP had got 31 seats while in alliance in 2012. In 2017, as BJP and Shiv Sena fought separately, Mumbaikars made BJP victorious with as many as 82 seats.

The reason behind telling this history is the deadlock that UBT is facing in the politics of the state. The subject of Mumbai Municipal Corporation is extremely dear to UBT. Few of his colleagues have started insisting that they should fight this election on their own. But UBT has not been able to decide on that.

Now it seems that UBT is confused with the question of whether to play the role of opposition party honestly or to break away from Maha Vikas Aghadi and form a separate group. There is a great opportunity to play the role of vigilant opposition along with the Congress and NCP (SP) by being in the Maha Vikas Aghadi.

However, since they do not know how to seize this opportunity and even if they do, as there is no such will, Uddhavrao and his colleagues are directly and indirectly indicating their wish to break away from Maha Vikas Aghadi.

After seeing the reactions of Uddhavrao and his colleagues on senior leader Sharad Pawar attending the felicitation ceremony of former Chief Minister and current Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, it is evident that UBT Sena is confused as to which direction to go next.

UBT has made a Hamlet of himself because of his own political immaturity. Balasaheb went through an immense struggle while building the organization fighting for Marathi people. Balasaheb created an army of fierce party workers while making this organization a system that works for the welfare of Marathi people. But, he (UBT) did not even have a basic wisdom that he would not survive forever in politics just on the basis of Balasaheb’s charisma and virtue. Whatever position Balasaheb achieved in politics was self-earned.

Uddhavrao who was living in his own comfort zone till now without realizing that to take this legacy of Balasaheb forward he has to work even harder, learn political tactics, at times has to fight for the common man by taking to the streets, is now unable to understand how to be in opposition for the next five years.  He has shown his helplessness by directly targeting Sharad Pawar.

 

(Article Pre-Published in Times of India Online – 17 February, 2025) 

Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson