After the severe setback received in the Lok Sabha elections last year, the BJP appears to be at odds with its allies. And it is not just with the JD(U) in Bihar. In Maharashtra too, the home state of BJP president Nitin Gadkari, relations between the BJP and the Shiv Sena, its ally for the past two and a half decades, are strained. Sena workers have attacked BJP leaders and their properties after the BJP tied up with the Congress and defeated the Sena while electing the Standing Committee chairperson of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
Despite being allies, the BJP and the Sena have been at loggerheads over several issues in recent times, including on the demand for a separate Vidarbha state ?the BJP supports the demand, while the Sena opposes it.
But the latest flashpoint was reached when the BJP?s Raju Shinde became the standing committee chairman of the AMC with support from Congress corporators, thereby defeating the Sena nominee three weeks ago. Infuriated with the ?betrayal?, Sena workers ransacked the local BJP office and set the bike of a BJP corporator on fire. Sena mouthpiece Saamna wrote a scathing editorial against the BJP and accused the latter of ?weakening? the Hindu cause.
Annoyed Sena workers continued to vent their ire by demanding the resignation of Shinde and the snapping of ties with the BJP. They also attacked the BJP?s district chief Basavraj Mangrule and the house of former BJP minister Haribhau Bagade?who is believed to have groomed Shinde in politics. In retaliation, BJP workers damaged the vehicle of the Sena?s district chief Ambadas Danve. Besides, Shinde filed a case under the prevention of atrocities on SCs and STs Act against Danve.
That the BJP is in a piquant situation became clear on Thursday last week when a crucial meeting held in Mumbai to take a decision on the issue, failed to reach a consensus. ?If we ask Shinde to quit and he does, it would be a setback for us in Aurangabad and the Sena will score over us. If he doesn?t quit and rebels, we?ll suffer a setback,? a senior BJP leader said, pointing out that his party would not like to antagonise the Sena which was in power in the AMC since 1989 and was stronger than the BJP in the Marathwada region of which Aurangabad is the headquarter.
The BJP has now empowered the state BJP chief Sudhir Mungantiwar to take a decision in the matter. Mungantiwar faces a tough task ahead as in the assembly elections last year, the Sena had won seven seats in the Marathwada region as against two by the BJP.
Meanwhile, the Sena, which has been sulking since the last assembly polls, in which the BJP emerged stronger than the Sena, is firm on its demand for Shinde?s resignation. In the assembly polls, the Congress emerged stronger and the Sena-BJP alliance suffered a setback. The Sena?s tally reduced from 63 in 2004 to 45 in 2009, while the BJP?s numbers dwindled from 54 to 46. But with a seat more, the BJP grabbed the post of the leader of the opposition in the Assembly.
The Sena, meanwhile, continues to register its ire. It supported and got elected an independent, Ayub Khan Amir Khan, as vice-chairman of the Aurangabad Cantonment Board where, of the seven elected members, the BJP has three members, the Sena two, and there are two independents.