On Monday, Sharad Sonawane, the lone MLA of the rival Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) jumped ship to the Shiv Sena.
It may have pulled back from the threat to contest the Lok Sabha elections sans an alliance with the BJP, but the Shiv Sena is witnessing a tizzy of ayarams and gayarams.
On Monday, Sharad Sonawane, the lone MLA of the rival Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) jumped ship to the Shiv Sena. Sonawane is a legislator from Junnar in Pune, which falls in the constituency of Shiv Sena MP Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil, who is seeking a fourth term in Parliament from Shirur. Ashok Khandebharad, who had contested against Adhalrao as a MNS candidate from Shirur in 2014, also joined the Sena with office bearers from the MNS and BJP.
However, the Sena's brinkmanship with the BJP, wherein it asked party leaders to prepare for a contest from seats held by its ally, may also lead to attrition. The Sena has already lost actor Dr Amol Kolhe, who has played the on-screen roles of warrior-king Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his son Sambhaji Maharaj, to the NCP. The NCP may pitch Kolhe from Shirur against Adhalrao.
Suresh Dhanorkar, who is one of the four Shiv Sena legislators from Vidarbha (62 seats) is said to be willing to jump ship to the Congress for a Lok Sabha nomination from Chandrapur. Dhanorkar, who defeated former minister Sanjay Deotale from Bhadravati in Chandrapur, was preparing to contest as a Shiv Sena candidate against the BJP's incumbent MP and union minister of state for home Hansraj Ahir.
Dhanorkar admitted that the Congress had given him an offer that he was considering though he was yet to give his consent.
The Shiv Sena's minister of state Arjun Khotkar, who wanted to take on the BJP's Jalna MP and its state unit chief Raosaheb Danve-Patil, may also break ranks with the party and join the Congress. "My idea of a friendly contest between the Sena and BJP in Jalna still stands. My workers are very insistent (on him contesting)," said Khotkar, adding he would meet party chief Uddhav Thackeray and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to stake his claim to the seat.
The infighting within the Shiv Sena may also take a toll on its prospects in the Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency where it's four-term MP Chandrakant Khaire is facing an uphill fight. Harshavardhan Jadhav, its rebel legislator from the Kannad constituency, has announced his decision to throw his hat into the ring as a candidate of his newly-formed 'Shivrajya Bahujan Party.'
Jadhav, who had a running battle with Khaire, had formally announced his break with the Sena last year during the protests seeking quotas for the Maratha community. The second-term MLA was first elected as a MNS nominee in 2009 and shifted to the Shiv Sena in 2014.
Of the Shiv Sena's 63 MLAs, one has already quit the party to join the BJP--Pratap Patil-Chikhlikar from Loha-Kandhar in Nanded.
A Shiv Sena MLA from rural Maharashtra described the alliance decision as "political suicide." "Our workers are angry. Local Shiv Sena functionaries are upset that they will have to stay away from a contest in the state assembly polls due later this year in seats represented by the BJP. We will also have to give up our claim on assembly seats like Ramtek in Vidarbha, which were traditionally represented by the Sena, but wrested by the BJP in 2014," he explained.
Shiv Sena leaders admit that the u-turn over contesting the Lok Sabha and assembly elections sans an alliance with the BJP, and later breaking bread with it, has lead to a churn in the rank-and-file and also the second rung, which was planning to contest in seats held by the BJP.
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