As BJP tightens grip in Maharashtra, cracks deepen in Shiv Sena

A year after the Bharatiya Janata Party with its allies the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party stormed into power in Maharashtra virtually wiping out the opposition winning 235 out of the 288 seats, the opposition is still to gather its wits. The drubbing has put the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in a disarray with the Congress now trying to distance itself from the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Sena (UBT Sena). While the opposition camp in disarray there are also deep fissures from within the Mahayuti alliance, especially the Shiv Sena as the BJP has emerged stronger under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The BJP has got 132 seats just 12 seats short of the 144 number for a majority, the BJP's big numbers has meant problems within the alliance as the Shiv Sena and BJP are at loggerheads as the former feels that the BJP now wants to expand its footprint in the state at its expense.

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In late November Nilesh Rane, the Shiv Sena's Kudal MLA, barged into the home of a BJP party functionary along with the police where they found a bag filled with cash. As the opposition on the sidelines cheered on, Nilesh claimed that the BJP was using money power to win the Kankavli local body polls. He accused none other than state BJP president Ravindra Chavan of supplying money to BJP workers. The Shiv Sena and BJP were already estranged after the BJP refused an offer for an alliance for the Kankavli Municipal council polls. The two parties contested separately with the Shiv Sena cobbling up an alliance to take on the BJP in the Kankavli civic polls. The Shiv Sena supported alliance eventually won the Kankavli civic poll but Nilesh Rane's allegations against the state BJP chief Chavan have demonstrated how brittle relations between the two allies are.

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The biggest showdown, however, came from Kalyan Dombivli, where the BJP last month inducted some long-time Shiv Sena functionaries who were close to Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde, son of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

The move angered the Shiv Sena as the BJP had already eyeing the Kalyan Lok Sabha constituency from where Shrikant Shinde is an MP. The Shiv Sena read it as a sign that the BJP was building its base in Kalyan and would stake its claim for the Kalyan seat forcefully in the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.

Which is why the response from the Shiv Sena was immediate, Shiv Sena ministers boycotted the weekly cabinet meeting of the Maharashtra government. They later met Chief Minister Fadnavis to complain on the issue, Fadnavis however retorted that the BJP was just following the Sena as the latter had a few days back poached some of its cadres in Ulhasnagar. Not satisfied with Fadnavis, Eknath Shinde flew to Delhi to meet Home Minister Amit Shah to complain to him about the poaching.

While the Shiv Sena claimed it now had a mutual understanding that the three ruling parties will no longer poach functionaries from each other's party, Ravindra Chavan again inducted two Shiv Sena functionaries from Kalyan-Dombivli on December 3. The Shiv Sena protested that the BJP had violated the alliance dharma, but the BJP again claimed that the Shiv Sena first broke the rule by inducting a female party cadre from Ambernath in their party.

Significantly alarm bells have been ringing in the Shiv Sena not just because of the BJP poaching key party functionaries from Kalyan Dombivli. The BJP in the last few days has inducted in several candidates who had contested against Shiv Sena MLAs in the 2024 assembly polls.

For instance, the party has inducted Satyajit Patankar and independent candidate from Patan who had contested against Shiv Sena Minister Shambhuraj Desai. Similarly, in Malegaon Outer Assembly constituency the BJP has got Advay Hire from the UBT, who had contested against Dada Bhuse, another Shiv Sena minister. Another UBT candidate Raju Shinde, who had contested against Sanjay Shirsat, another Shiv Sena minister, has also been brought into the BJP.

The inductions have led to fears from the Shiv Sena that the BJP is strengthening itself and is already planning to stake claim on its seats for the 2029 assembly polls.

While both Fadnavis and Shinde praise each other in public, the tensions between the Maharashtra BJP unit and the Shiv Sena primarily stems from the tug of war between the CM and his deputy CM.

Things between Shinde and Fadnavis were initially good after the latter gave up the chief minister's post in favour of Shinde in 2022. However, things have soured as Shinde consolidated his hold in the party and began taking decisions unilaterally. Sources said that there were frequent run-ins between Fadnavis and Shinde over running the government.

BJP leaders claim that Shinde used his proximity to Home Minister Amit Shah to browbeat the BJP leadership in the state. Things however changed after the 2024 assembly polls when the BJP nearly reached the majority figure on its own. Even then, Shinde first staked claim on the chief minister's post claiming it was due to his mandate that the Mahayuti alliance got so many seats. Things between Fadnavis and Shinde have soured so much that when Shinde realised that he was not getting the top job, he tried to reach out to the BJP leadership warning them about the drawbacks of Fadnavis being the CM.