Samikhsya Bureau
The constant bickering between the Bharatiya Janata Party and its coalition partner Shiv Sena in Maharashtra has its effect on the former’s future strategies ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Addressing booth-level party cadre in a close-door meeting in Latur, BJP national president Amit Shah has said on Sunday that the BJP may go it alone in the state during the next Lok Sabha and assembly elections. In the same meeting, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the BJP had to be ready for fighting alone in the Lok Sabha. He claimed the BJP had the capacity to win 40 out of total 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Both the leaders said that if the BJP fought the elections alone, it would convincingly beat other parties including Shiv Sena.
Shiv Sena has sharply reacted to the BJP’s “arrogance”. In a statement, the Shiv Sena said that the BJP did not want “Hindutvavadis” but would like to strike an alliance with the ‘EVMs”. Shiv Sena also launched a blistering attack on the BJP through its mouthpiece Saamana. Quoting Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data, the paper wrote in its editorial that 1.09 crore youth lost their jobs in 2018, which was in contrast with the claims made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his interview last week. “The youth elected you (Modi) to power, they will bring you down,” the editorial said.
Besides the 2019 general elections, Maharashtra will also go to polls for the state assembly in the later part of the year. The BJP and Shiv Sena had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls together, but as the relations between the National Democratic Alliance partners soured, they split up at the time of assembly elections few months later. Though Shiv Sena joined the Maharashtra government after the assembly elections, the relations between the two have only deteriorated by the day.
The Maharashtra assembly has 289 members including one nominated member. The BJP and allies had got 122 assembly seats while Shiv Sena had bagged 63 seats by contesting independently. The Congress and National Congress Party, on the other hand, had bagged 42 and 41 seats.
In 2014, the Congress-NCP combine faced acute anti-incumbency. But in 2019, it may give a tough fight to the beleaguered BJP with the Shiv Sena constantly hitting at it.
