Mumbai: After being bitter enemies with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for five years, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) seems to be holding out an olive branch to the ruling party, especially Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

On Friday, in its mouthpiece Saamana, the Shiv Sena (UBT) uncharacteristically praised Fadnavis for visiting Gadchiroli on the first day of the new year, inaugurating development projects there and promising to turn around the district torn by Naxal violence into a “steel district”.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) maintains that the editorial is nothing more than “basic civility in politics” keeping the good of Maharashtra in mind.

Saamana executive editor and Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut also said that it has been the tradition and culture of his party since the time of party founder Bal Thackeray to applaud anything good that a government is doing, even if it is one of a different ideology.

“We all have some responsibilities towards this state. This state is ours. So if in this state even if the government is not of our ideology, but it has taken steps that are beneficial to the state, its law and order, its social equations, then we must leave our political differences aside and praise it,” he said.

Political analysts are not convinced. It, according to them, can be the Shiv Sena (UBT)‘s way of creating some options in case it decides to politically align with the BJP in the future. This can be the party’s way of keeping its flock, which is disillusioned by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) after the polls, together, they add.

For the BJP, these observers say, the optics of getting closer to Thackeray help in keeping its ally, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, in check.

Speaking to reporters in Satara Friday, Fadnavis simply responded to Saamana’s praise in two words: “Good, thanks.”

Also Read: From trips to Delhi for govt formation to cabinet picks, Mahayuti 2.0 has a clear BJP stamp 

Eye on BMC polls, message to Shinde

The Shiv Sena (UBT), which was part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), won just 20 of Maharashtra’s 288 assembly seats. Its allies, Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), put up an even poorer performance, managing 16 and 10 seats, respectively.

Following the Shiv Sena (UBT)‘s loss, several local party functionaries across Maharashtra demanded they contest the civic polls, expected to be held this year, independently and not as part of the Aghadi.

Last month, when the winter session of the state legislature was underway, Thackeray went to meet Fadnavis to congratulate him for taking charge as the Maharashtra CM.

On Friday, Raut said the Thackeray-Fadnavis meeting should simply be seen as his party’s ability to follow protocol even with political opponents.

However, political commentator Hemant Desai says the meeting was the first sign of narrowing of the chasm between Thackeray and the BJP. “Uddhav Thackeray’s meeting signaled that there is some attempt to end the bitterness. Nothing concrete is likely to happen immediately because Uddhav Thackeray will want to capture the Opposition narrative for the Mumbai civic body polls, but the MVA as an alliance is barely visible now and cadres must be getting restless,” Desai adds.

He adds, the party leadership showing that it is cordial to the ruling side, and the bitterness between them is mellowing can keep the party’s flock together in the hope that there can be change in Shiv Sena (UBT)’s political alignment .

The situation is very unpredictable, according to political commentator Prakash Bal. “The ideological stands have become so loose, that parties don’t find anything wrong in jumping from one side to another swiftly.”

The two parties, Bal says, can have some understanding for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. “The BJP wants to somehow get control of the BMC, and the BJP wants to do it on its own strength as far as possible, while Uddhav Thackeray doesn’t want to lose the BMC at any cost. Instead of coming together openly, they may have a behind-the-scenes understanding. It will help cut Eknath Shinde to size.”

Shinde, who helped the BJP come to power in 2022 when he rebelled against the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government and caused a vertical split in the Shiv Sena, is perceived to be sulking after the polls in November last year.

The BJP got an overwhelming majority with 132 seats, and Shinde, the incumbent CM of the Mahayuti government, had to step aside for Fadnavis to take over the reins. Shinde then bargained for the home portfolio and the post of chairman of the Legislative Council, which the BJP kept with itself.

Ever since he took over as CM, Fadnavis has tried to put his stamp on the government by first holding a meeting of senior bureaucrats across departments and giving them targets, by reviewing the list of beneficiaries of the Mahayuti’s flagship ‘Ladki Bahin’ scheme that Shinde was projecting as one of his biggest achievements, and even overturning a decision taken by Shinde when he was the CM about hiring buses on rent for the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC).

‘No change in stance’

A senior Mumbai-based Shiv Sena (UBT) leader says that while the party praised Fadnavis for his Gadchiroli visit and his ambition to continue as the district’s guardian minister, its veiled target is Eknath Shinde, who was the Gadchiroli guardian minister in the Aghadi government when the Sena was undivided.

Even when Raut was defending the Saamana editorial, he condemned a “previous guardian minister of Gadchiroli” alleging that he dabbled in “graft and extortion without bringing any development in the region”.

Raut said his party still has political differences with the Fadnavis government, adding that Maharashtra’s political environment has become so vitiated over the past few years that the “political criticism against opponents has turned venomous”.

“But we all have some responsibilities towards this state,” Raut said.

“Shiv Sena is a party that functions on culture and tradition. We also maintain decency. We are in the Opposition and for five more years, we will have to work as Opposition,” Raut said, adding that there is constant dialogue between the ruling and opposition sides through various means and the Saamana editorial was one such means.

The above-mentioned Mumbai-based Shiv Sena (UBT) functionary says it is not fair to see the Saamana editorial about Gadchiroli as the party going soft on the Fadnavis government. “We have criticised the Mahayuti and the BJP enough, when they were unable to decide on the CM, when there was a delay in cabinet formation and then in portfolio allocation,” he asserts.

(Edited by Tony Rai)

Also Read: With caste and political arithmetic in mind, how Fadnavis has been building up MLC Ram Shinde