Ideological discord within Shiv Sena begins to haunt Maharashtra govt, 400 workers jump ship to BJP in Dharavi

Dharavi: The Shiv Sena is grappling with a miffed Bharatiya Janata Party following the Maharashtra political staccato after the former scrapped its ‘Mahayuti’ alliance with the ruling party at the Centre and formed a coalition ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ government with the Nationalist Congress Party and Congress on November 28. Unhappy with the move, Sena witnessed a massive exodus on Wednesday (December 4) after 400 of its workers joined the BJP in Dharavi in Mumbai. The Shiv Sena workers said they were unhappy with party supremo and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for getting into an alliance with rival parties to form the government in Maharashtra. “I was working with Shiv Sena for 10 years. We were supporting the Hindutva ideology of Sena. I was given an office to serve people but as Sena has decided to form the government with NCP and Congress, it is not acceptable to us. Now, we all have decided to join BJP,” Sena leader Ramesh Nadar said, according to news agency ANI. The estranged NDA allies fought the 2019 Assembly elections as a unit and swept the polls with majority. However, the Shiv Sena insisted on its demand to have a Chief Minister of their own for a period of 2.5 years, which the BJP refused to accede to. The led to a stalemate that lasted for a month. The Sena then approached NCP chief Sharad Pawar and interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to form a government, resulting in Uddhav Thackeray being sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on November 28, along with six others from all three parties. Thackeray, in the process, became the first in his family to hold the CM’s post. Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena commented on the BJP’s prospects in Jharkhand and cast its doubts on the Raghubar Das-led government’s return, stating that people do not want their “ghar wapsi”. “The ruling BJP might have fought the last Assembly elections with Lok Janshakti Party and All Jharkhand Students Union, but now both the allies are contesting alone. Therefore, the BJP is seen struggling with serious difficulties in the electoral arena. People there are not in the mood of their ‘ghar wapsi’,” Shiv Sena said in its mouthpiece Saamana, according to ANI. Source: Times Now