Aaditya has been traveling across the state seeking reforms in the Shiv Sena after the rebellion led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde last month. The Shinde faction later teamed up with the BJP to flag off a new political formation in the state’s politics.
Sources said the news of Aaditya’s warm welcome has alerted BJP strategists ahead of the civic polls to be held across the state, including in Mumbai and Thane. Municipal elections, likely scheduled for October, will determine the prospects of the Thackeray as well as the Shinde faction-BJP alliance.
Aditya recently addressed a well-attended party jamboree at Pachora, a village in Jalgaon district, which is the political stronghold of Gulabrao Patil, a senior minister in the current regime. A Shiv Sena worker said that Matoshree heaved a sigh of relief after reports of a nearly stampede at Pachora’s meeting, as Shiv Sainiks were pushing and shoving to reach close to the stage to meet the former minister.
State BJP strategists are worried that both Uddhav Thackeray and Aaditya will continue playing the Shiv Sena’s rebellion, which, they allege, reflects the rebels’ unbridled craving for power. Clearly, the state BJP is keen to dispel the notion, if any, that it helped Shiv Sena’s ‘gaddars’ (traitors) to topple the MVA government.
Pointing out that the ‘Gadar’ narrative is a way of matoshri among Shiv Sena voters, especially in the MMR region where Shinde plans to take deep root in the municipal elections, a BJP functionary said, “We need to strengthen one Need to do. Thackeray’s father-son electoral strategy is countered. dagger cake‘ (dagger-in-the-back) rhetoric. Voters often fall for the ’empathy’ factor. That’s why Matoshree tried to project Uddhav ji as a ‘Dalit’.”
A large section of the BJP believes that the party need not share the ideological baggage of the Shinde faction. “Eknath-ji keeps on referring to the Shiv Sena’s Hindutva legacy, which was aggressively adopted by Balasaheb Thackeray and Anand Dighe in the 1990s. The BJP has Prime Minister Modi as the most popular vote-gatherer. We don’t need other parties. There is no need to borrow symbols from India. We have to keep our political identity intact,” he said.
Political experts said the BJP-Shinde alliance should focus on good governance and tackle development issues like irrigation, minimum remunerative price to farmers, roads and health care and electricity. In addition, there are several legal and constitutional issues on the plate of the Shinde regime, which have far-reaching political consequences.
Since the fall of the MVA government, Thackeray and Aaditya have shown flexibility in reforming the army machinery. Many in the Shiv Sena think that the rebellion has shaken Matoshree with its idiosyncrasies.
Senior Thackeray is visiting shakhas across the city to win the trust of grassroot level Shiv Sainiks, while Aaditya is addressing gatherings in remote villages as part of the ‘Shiv Samvad Yatra’ crusade to dispel popular belief. May the army be a Mumbai centric party
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