Sly moves to breach BJP-Sena ties fail to work
The cordial meeting between Bharatiya Janata Party Election Campaign Committee chairman and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai should rest speculation that the latter is miffed with Mr Modi and that the relationship between the Shiv Sena and the BJP had come under serious strain. In fact, such talk should have ended soon after the Shiv Sena clarified that the editorial which appeared in the party's mouthpiece, Saamana, saying that Mr Modi shouldn't be “parochial” in extending relief efforts in Uttarakhand, was not an indictment of the Gujarat Chief Minister. This clarification came from Mr Thackeray himself. He went on to emphasise that Mr Modi had done a remarkable job. Yet the speculation, helped by media hype, continued to hover.
Now that the leaders of the two parties have met and Mr Modi has explained the situation to the satisfaction of the Shiv Sena chief, it is clear as daylight that the strong bond which exists between the BJP and the Shiv Sena has not been dented one bit. The two parties are now even better equipped to successfully take on the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance in Maharashtra. But the Sena-BJP rivals are unlikely to refrain from spreading their falsehood, just as they had not stopped from going to town prophesising the end of partnership between the two after Mr Modi was appointment the BJP's poll campaign chief and talk of his being the prime ministerial candidate began doing the rounds. The Congress went to pains to point out that Sena founder Bal Thackeray had preferred Ms Sushma Swaraj for the honour. While that is true, it is unfair to see it as a rejection of Mr Modi. In the first place, Mr Modi was not on the national stage when Bal Thackeray had indicated his preference. Moreover, nowhere did Bal Thackeray say that he chose Ms Swaraj ‘over Mr Modi'. It again took Mr Uddhav Thackeray to set the record straight. Yet, the matter continues to be fodder for the BJP’s and Mr Modi’s opponents.
The other theory for Mr Uddhav Thackeray's ‘opposition' to the Gujarat Chief Minister is that the latter is close to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena supremo and the Sena chief's political rival Raj Thackeray. While it is true that the MNS and the Shiv Sena are rivals in Maharashtra and that Mr Raj Thackeray shares good chemistry with Mr Modi, it does not make the Gujarat Chief Minister less likeable to the Shiv Sena. On the contrary, it is possible — though we must add this is for now strictly in the realm of possibility — that both the Shiv Sena and the MNS might end up on the same side in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. If there is genuine cause for speculation, it is here, and not in the so-called coming disruption of the partnership between the Sena and the BJP.
One reason why the Congress is so keen to promote the spin over the imagined rift between the Shiv Sena and the BJP is because it can use the issue to divert the people's attention from the failures of the Government that it partners with the NCP in Maharashtra. The State regime is steeped in scams and dubious decision-making, and the massive fraud in the irrigation projects is but one such example. The voters are too clever to be taken for a ride.