- Sunday, May 04, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
IT’S less than a month since he had to step down from the chief minister’s post in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, thanks to a revolt in his Shiv Sena and what many said was an invisible pull from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
And now, Uddhav Thackeray has faced a new challenge after supporting Droupadi Murmu, the presidential candidate of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of which it was once a part but pulled out in 2019 over a power tussle with the saffron party.
A day after he threw weight behind Murmu, backed by the BJP with which his embattled party has locked horns in Maharashtra politics, Thackeray has faced flak from the Indian National Congress, a partner in his now-toppled Maha Vikas Aghadi (Maharashtra Development Front) government and a rival to Narendra Modi’s BJP.
Balasaheb Thorat, a senior leader of the Congress in Maharashtra, expressed serious concerns over the Sena’s stance of supporting Murmu, who if elected in the July 18 election, will become India’s first tribal president.
In a tweet, Thorat raised questions over the ideological defection of the Sena, who is still a part of the MVA coalition.
“The presidential election is an ideological battle. It is an ongoing struggle for democracy and the defence of the Constitution. This is not a question of women vs men or tribals vs non-tribals,” he said.
“All those who are in favour of the protection of the Constitution and democracy are supporting Yashwant Sinha,” Thorat noted.
In a series of tweets, he said, “Why did Shiv Sena support Draupadi Murmu? They gave some reasons for that, but we cannot say anything about the real role of the Shiv Sena leadership behind it.”
“Shiv Sena is a different political party, so they can take their decisions independently. However, the role played by Shiv Sena in this ideological battle when the state government was overthrown by adopting a non-democratic path and the existence of Shiv Sena was challenged is incomprehensible. Sena is a part of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), but they did not discuss anything with us while taking the decision,” he added.
The Nationalist Congress Party, another major ally in the MVP, said while the Sena took a decision to back the NDA’s candidate, it still wants its MVA alliance in the state to remain intact.
Jayant Patil, the NCP’s state president, said in every presidential election, the Sena has made their own choice. He said the issue is not about supporting the NDA but a candidate who belongs to the tribal community.
“We cannot have restrictions, several decisions are taken at individual party level, where alliance partners should not interfere. However, Sena had not discussed before announcing their support for Draupadi Murmu,” Patil was quoted as saying by India Today.
Thackeray reportedly took the call on supporting Murmu after a number of Sena parliamentarians demanded it, something which many feared could cripple an already split party further if Thackeray did not accept it.
Thackeray was replaced by another Sena leader Eknath Shinde who defied the former’s leadership and eventually toppled the government by revolting with several other lawmakers and turning it into a minority. Shinde later got the support of the opposition BJP to form a government in Maharashtra.
