By PTI
MUMBAI: Despite being a celebration of dedicated cadres with unflinching loyalty to management of the day, the Shiv Sena has been weak to rebellions in its ranks and it has seen revolts by outstanding figures on 4 events, three of them beneath the watch of its charismatic founder Bal Thackeray, with Eknath Shinde changing into the newest chief to hitch the record.
The insurrection by Shinde, a Cabinet minister who has walked away with a bunch of Shiv Sena MLAs, is most vital within the outfit’s 56-year-old historical past because it threatens to convey down the party-led Maha Vikas Aghadi authorities in Maharashtra, whereas the opposite revolts befell when it was not in energy within the state.
The current revolt, which began taking form post-Monday midnight after Legislative Council ballot outcomes, throws a giant problem earlier than Maharashtra Chief Minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray because the three earlier revolts befell when his father Bal Thackeray was nonetheless round.
The Sena witnessed the primary main jolt in 1991 when Chhagan Bhujbal, the OBC face of the get together who was additionally credited with increasing the group’s base in rural components of Maharashtra, determined to depart the get together.
Bhujbal had cited “non-appreciation” from the get together management as the explanation for leaving the get together. Despite Bhujbal having helped the Sena to win a sizeable variety of seats in components of Maharashtra, Bal Thackeray had appointed Manohar Joshi as Leader of Opposition within the Assembly.
In the following winter session in Nagpur, Bhujbal together with 18 Sena MLAs left the get together and introduced their assist to the Congress which was then ruling the state.
But, 12 insurgent MLAs returned to the Sena fold the identical day. Bhujbal and different insurgent MLAs had been acknowledged by the then-Assembly speaker as a separate group and they didn’t face any motion.
“It was an audacious move because Shiv Sena workers were well known for their aggressive approach (towards dissidence). They even attacked the official residence of Chhagan Bhujbal in Mumbai, which is generally guarded by the state police force,” a senior political journalist informed PTI.
Bhujbal, nonetheless, misplaced the 1995 Assembly election from Mumbai to the then-Shiv Sena chief Bala Nandgaonkar, and later shifted base to Nashik district. The veteran politician joined the NCP when Sharad Pawar shaped the get together after leaving the Congress in 1999.
Bhujbal (74) is at present a minister and cabinet colleague of Shinde within the Shiv Sena-led MVA authorities. In 2005, the Shiv Sena confronted one other problem when former chief minister Narayan Rane left the get together and joined the Congress. Rane, who subsequently left the Congress, is at present a BJP Rajya Sabha member and likewise a Union minister.
The subsequent shock to the Sena got here in 2006 when Uddhav Thackeray’s cousin Raj Thackeray determined to depart the get together and type his personal political outfit – the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
Raj Thackeray had then stated his battle was not with the Sena management, however with others surrounding the get together management and never letting others in.
In the 2009 election to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the MNS received 13 seats. Its tally in Mumbai was yet another than the Shiv Sena.
The Shiv Sena is at present going through one other insurrection by a piece of its MLAs led by senior state minister Eknath Shinde, a four-time MLA from Thane district and a well-liked determine within the group.
Political journalist Prakash Akolkar, who has written a guide on the get together, stated, “The Sena leadership is taking some of its leaders for granted. Such an attitude has always backfired, but party is not ready to change its stance.”
“Now, times have changed and most of the MLAs come to the party with a lot of expectations, he said. If those expectations are not addressed properly, such a revolt is bound to happen,” he stated.
The Shiv Sena at present has 55 MLAs, the NCP 53 and the Congress 44 MLAs. All three represent the MVA. The opposition BJP has 106 seats within the Assembly. To escape disqualification beneath the anti-defection regulation, Shinde wants the assist of 37 MLAs. The insurgent chief has claimed 46 Sena MLAs are with him.
