The chief minister is keen to ensure that his ideological platform remains intact by asserting time and again that he has not abandoned the Hindutva nurtured carefully by the Sena founder late Balasaheb Thackeray. Also he has realized that ceding the Hindutva space might cost him big, with his cousin Raj Thackeray’s recent efforts to rebrand himself as a pro-Hindutva leader. Uddhav has to reclaim the space.

Uddhav’s much-publicized visit to Ayodhya last week is part of his new political strategy. The Maharashtra ruling coalition headed by Uddhav has just completed 100 days of rule on Friday last. To mark the occasion, the chief minister visited Ayodhya with his family and announced a donation of Rs one crore for building the proposed Ram temple. “This sum is not from the government but from my trust,” he announced pointing out that it was his third visit in the last one and a half years. He told a crowd in Ayodhya, “I have parted ways with the BJP but not with the Hindutva.” The Sena mouthpiece Saamna also in its latest editorial said Lord Ram and the Hindutva were not the sole property of any single political party. So it is clear that Uddhav is designing his own brand of Hindutva.

The chief minister has been consistent in his assertion and even told the Assembly on December 1, “I am still with the ideology of Hindutva which cannot be separated from me.” The fact that his coalition partners understand his need for asserting about his ideological platform was visible when his plans to visit Ayodhya were announced. The local Congress leaders were quick to justify that they had no problem with it because the Congress too was in favour of building Ram temple in Ayodhya. In fact, a significant number of local Congress and NCP leaders feel that the alliance has helped them to counter the BJP propaganda that they were pro Muslims.

Though Uddhav has kept his party in tact after the death of his father Balasaheb Thackeray these past seven years, heading the government and running a coalition are new areas for him. For instance, despite the bonhomie, there have been some anxious moments for the coalition partners, when he had made a flip-flop on the contentious issues like the CAA, NRC and NPR. In December Uddhav said the CAA will not be implemented in Maharashtra and subsequently after meeting the Prime Minister in Delhi in February he said the law has been misunderstood. He also spoke in favour of NPR.

Frowning on this flip- flop, Congress leader Manish Tewari tweeted “CM Maharashtra @UddhavThackarey requires a briefing on Citizenship Amendment Rules -2003 to understand how NPR is basis of NRC. Once you do NPR you cannot stop NRC. On CAA-needs to be reacquainted with design of Indian Constitution that religion cannot be basis of Citizenship (sic).”

Now Uddhav has announced a committee to study the NPR and also assured the legislators before the budget session that contentious issues would not be allowed to disturb the coalition. All these have put the delicate coalition equation a little fragile. There are high stakes for all the three partners to keep the coalition going. The Sena had no option than to go for this coalition experiment if it had to remain relevant in Maharashtra politics. This was the calculation of the Sena when it parted company with the BJP.

However, there is a perception that Uddhav was diluting the Hindutva concept due to coalition compulsions. Uddhav had to reassure his cadre that the ideology was intact. So what better way than to visit Ayodhya, pay donation for the Ram temple, assert his Hindutva credential etc.?

Stakes are high for Uddhav. Being a regional party, the Sena will have nothing to fall back upon if the party gets weakened and there is a risk that Sainiks might shift to MNS or the BJP. Therefore, all that he is doing is to protect his turf while swearing by the Common Minimum Programme, which has secularism in the first paragraph. Meanwhile, as a strategy, the three partners would keep asserting their respective position for the public consumption and be patient and Uddhav would keep harping on the Hindutva, as that is the only way the coalition government can continue. (IPA Service)