Priyanka Chaturvedi came straight off the blocks from the word ‘Go’, blasting the BJP for the “unruly behaviour” of 12 of its MLAs. “What happened yesterday was shameful for the state. This is not our culture,” she wrote. “People expect better things from elected representatives. Such behaviour coming from a responsible party, makes our heads hang in shame."

The former Congress party spokesperson and current Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP scotched “rumours” of “back-channel negotiations” between the BJP and the Sena. “The Chief Minister said when over 30 years the partnership was not able to reconcile large differences, what could possibly have changed now? This should put an end to all speculation that began after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

The Shiv Sena and the BJP do not agree on a host of issues including the politically-sensitive reservation for Marathas. Also, talk that the BJP and Shiv Sena would be back to holding hands was purely for the benefit of the BJP. The ‘godi-media’ went to town with the premise while all along it was sham thrown for the people’s consumption, which obviously failed to find its mark notwithstanding the “TV debates and the reams of columns”.

Also, talk that Modi would “reserve” a ministerial berth for the Shiv Sena in the Union ministry reshuffle turned out to be bunkum, a farrago of lies, Shashi Tharoor’s “floccinaucinihilipilification”, which in easy understandable English is another word for something “worthless”. Also, maybe Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray believes Modi’s cultivation of a beard – “pogonotrophy” – is proof of ‘Chor Ki Daadi Mei Tinka’ in the Rafale deal.

Priyanka Chaturvedi says the Shiv Sena “never plays games”, the tone set by Balasaheb Thackeray and the music hasn’t changed to date. Shiv Sena’s alliances have been “upfront and transparent”, as proven by the fact that the one with the BJP lasted 30 years! That tie-up broke because both the BJP and Shiv Sena couldn’t see eye to eye on government formation post the last assembly elections.

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, egged on by ex-Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, could not stomach the fact that the Shiv Sena under Uddhav Thackeray wanted its place under the sun! “Characteristic of the BJP,” wrote Priyanka Chaturvedi. “The Shiv Sena chose to walk a new path and forge new alliances, on its own terms and conditions.”

And, say a dozen political analysts, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) formula has been working like clockwork, running a model of governance that can be the template for working out an alliance to serve at the Centre – “fighting for democracy, and working for public welfare”. Ideologies taking a backseat if any seat at all. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar is working out the details for an alliance at the national level, and Pawar just happens to be Thackeray’s current mentor.

Why if everything goes right and an alliance advised by Prashant Kishor and mentored by Sharad Pawar, with the Congress very much part of the ‘mahagathbandan’, comes to power in 2024, there might be a Prime Minister picked up from any of the parties making up the alliance, even from the Shiv Sena!

No doubt it will be an alliance made of “secular” political parties and it has not escaped anybody that the Shiv Sena has been seriously working on its secular image, building up a secular resume to go with the secular makeover. Why, even Tipu Sultan, the “eternal enemy” of the Marathas, is not beyond the Sena’s embrace. It supports a proposal to name a Mumbai park after Tipu, much against the BJP’s wish and opposed by fringe Hindu outfits.

That being said, there’s a lull in contentious politics. This political situation might last till after the assembly polls slated for 2022, including the Goa and Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. Tables will turn depending on the outcomes. Till then it’ll be tenterhook, and whoever wins will be Sikandar!

Currently, the Uddhav Thackeray dispensation is stuck on Sachin Vaze and Param Bir Singh and the Antilia Explosives Scare case. Sharad Pawar’s NCP cannot free itself from Anil Desmukh’s travails, and the Modi Government continues to use central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate to rattle the MVA, and if possible break the alliance into two if not three pieces. (IPA Service)