Why is Maharashtra poll fray fragmented?
The HinduSince the formation of the State in 1960, Maharashtra has been dominated for a long period by the Congress System, stitching a cross-sectional alliance between the dominant agrarian caste of the Maratha-Kunbi group and effective support from Dalits and Muslims. However, the emergence of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena, in alliance with each other, introduced new dimensions to the political arena in the 1990s, emphasising Hindutva and regional pride. The splintering of major parties, such as the Shiv Sena into factions led by Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray, and the split within the Nationalist Congress Party, has reshaped the political landscape so much that one of the key electoral discourses is to take the 2024 Assembly elections as a test for the credibility of respective party factions as the “original” party — for both Shiv Senas and the NCPs. After the Assembly elections in 2019, following a period of intense political drama, the Shiv Sena, in a drastic attempt to keep their brand of politics intact while striving to be in the power center, departed from the BJP’s alliance and joined the unlikely Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance with secular parties like the NCP and Congress. In 2022, a faction within the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde rebelled against their party’s dynast Uddhav Thackeray, who was the sitting Chief Minister, and joined hands with the BJP.