Facing the toughest electoral battle of his career after BJP snapped ties with his party, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray began a whirlwind campaign tour of the state, which will see him address over 50 rallies.
This is being seen as a sink-or-swim battle for Uddhav in the first state polls after the death of Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, who enjoyed a talismanic appeal over the party faithful. Sena veterans claim that they will benefit from a sympathy wave for Uddhav and the Sena.
"If Uddhav succeeds in capitalising on the anti-incumbency sentiment and drums up support over the BJP ditching us, he will be able to show that he has arrived as a leader. In the past, his detractors have always shied away from crediting the Sena's success to him... The Shiv Sena and BJP led Mahayuti's Lok Sabha sweep was attributed to Narendra Modi," said a Sena source.
With barely 10 days left for electioneering, he said, Uddhav would address several rallies in the next few days. "Since the Sena lacks a strong second-rung, mass leadership, Uddhav has to campaign himself as he is the party's biggest vote catcher," the source said, adding that Yuva Sena chief and Uddhav's son Aaditya was also involved in campaign work.
Sena, which has 44 MLAs and the support of an independent, has lost the status of the principal opposition party in the assembly as the BJP has 46 legislators. However, the Sena has a much wider social base than the BJP in Maharashtra and has traditionally dominated its ally.
Sena sources claim they could tap into the perceived disillusionment against the Modi regime. "These rallies are designed to reach out to the maximum number of people. Citizens are hurt by the BJP's use-and-throw policy," said Sena's communications chief Harshal Pradhan. "We tried to forge an alliance but the BJP wanted to snap ties," he said, adding that they were capitalising on their erstwhile ally's "betrayal of Balasaheb's blessings and double standards".
"Apart from this emotional pitch, the common man is also disappointed at the BJP snapping its alliance with the Sena when we were poised to sweep the state together," said Pradhan.
On Wednesday, Uddhav addressed a rally at Parbhani in Marathwada, a Sena bastion, and on Thursday campaigned at Satara and Kolhapur in the sugar belt of Western Maharashtra. He will also tour Akola, Buldhana, Amravati, Wardha, Chandrapur, Solapur, Ahmednagar, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Pune, Nashik, Thane, Raigad, Nandurbar and Jalgaon. Aaditya will also participate in road shows in places like Khed and Nashik.
The icing on the cake for Uddhav in the Lok Sabha victory was the near electoral decimation of estranged cousin Raj Thackeray's MNS which played the spoiler in 2009 but lost its security deposit in all 10 Lok Sabha constituencies it contested from.
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