The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) on August 9 strongly refuted the allegation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that it was the Shiv Sena and not the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that severed the long-standing alliance between the two parties in 2014.
Stating that the country had witnessed who had severed the 25-year alliance between the Shiv Sena and the BJP in 2014, Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, “The BJP had officially conveyed it through its leader Eknath Khadse that they were cutting ties with us. The PM ought to check the record and not distort facts.”
Backing Mr. Raut’s remarks, Mr. Khadse, who is now with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), said: “What PM Modi said is not merely a half-truth, but completely untrue. I was Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly in 2014 when the split occurred. At the time, the wind was blowing against the ruling Congress-NCP government in the State. The situation was such that we [the BJP] were sure they would not return and that the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance would triumph in the 2014 Assembly election.”
Mr. Khadse claimed that at least two months before the October 2014 election, the view within the BJP was that if they could win on their own, then the party ought to contest independently and that the alliance with Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena ought to be broken.
“Senior leaders like Devendra Fadnavis, Sudhir Mungantiwar and myself among others discussed the question of who would break the news to the Sena…I had come to my constituency of Muktainagar [in Jalgaon district] when I received an urgent call by the party brass to return to Mumbai. While Devendra Fadnavis [who was BJP State president] ought to have told the Sena of our decision, it was decided I should call Uddhav Thackeray and convey the news,” said Mr. Khadse, stressing it was the BJP, and not the Shiv Sena that broke the alliance in 2014.
While the BJP and the Shiv Sena contested the Assembly election separately that year, they again patched up after the results as both parties failed to secure a simple majority.
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The BJP-Sena alliance was in power from 2014-19 under the chief ministership of Mr. Fadnavis. The saffron alliance finally broke up for the second time after the 2019 Assembly election results.
On Tuesday, Mr. Modi, at a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) MPs from Maharashtra (ruling BJP-Eknath Shinde-led Sena faction-Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction) had reportedly hit out at Uddhav Thackeray by accusing the latter of being the first to sever ties with the BJP.
According to sources, Mr. Modi alleged that the Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana often published unfounded criticism about the Centre and stoked controversies.
The Prime Minister further claimed that NCP chief Sharad Pawar could not become Prime Minister owing to the Congress’s dynastic politics.
Responding to this, Mr. Raut, who is executive editor of the Sena (UBT) mouthpiece, said he was glad that the Prime Minister read the Saamana and took note of the criticism published in it.
