Inexperienced leadership may play spoilsport in Shiv Sena's poll party

MUMBAI: Most opinion polls have suggest that the Shiv Sena-BJP combine would be voted to power in Maharashtra but if that happens, the biggest problem Sena would face would be the inexperience of its leaders.

The Sena has been away from power for 15 years and the entire group of senior leaders who constituted the state cabinet in the 1990s is out of action. Many feel the Sena is struggling mainly because the party’s oldguard is missing.

All senior Sena men, who occupied crucial portfolios when Sena was in power over 15 years ago, are dead, defected or have been sidelined. Manohar Joshi, Sudhir Joshi, Leeladhar Dake, Chhagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Madhukar Sarpotdar, Pramod Nawalkar, Suresh Prabhu and Wamanrao Mahadik used to be the core team of Bal Thackeray. But all these leaders are now missing.

“Given the situation that no experienced person is active in the Sena core team, the party will need an alliance partner to share the responsibility,” said Prakash Akolkar, author of Sena’s official biography.

Chhagan Bhujbal crossed over to Congress in 1991 before Shiv Sena came to power in 1995, while Narayan Rane, who was a senior minister in the Sena government and elevated as CM after Joshi stepped down, left the Sena in 2005 to become revenue minister in the Congress government. Manohar Joshi and Sudhir Joshi have been sidelined, while Leeladhar Dake has been given just an ornamental position. Suresh Prabhu, who was active in Delhi and held very crucial portfolios such as environment and energy, has virtually been sidelined by the new leadership of the Shiv Sena.



Many within the Sena feel that the current deadlock over seat-sharing with the BJP has gone to extreme extent because of the missing old-guard. “The senior leaders used to seal the deal within one or two meetings. Now the young are not able to resolve the issues,” said a senior Sena leader.