Despite the setbacks, Thackeray’s Sena (UBT) still has the sympathy factor going for it. But it’s an uphill task, managing the alliance, wooing new voter blocs and keeping his core Marathi vote intact
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meets the press at his home, Matoshree, in Mumbai, Jan. 10; (Photo: Hindustan Times)
ISSUE DATE: Mar 18, 2024 | UPDATED: Mar 9, 2024 13:28 IST
A debilitating split in the party, a recalibration of political affiliations and a series of legal reverses. Things haven’t been going well for Uddhav Thackeray since his partyman Eknath Shinde walked out of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government with 39 other MLAs and joined hands with the BJP in June 2022. Not only did it bring Thackeray’s two-and-a-half-year chief ministership to an abrupt end, it left him and his faction—the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) or Sena (UBT)—with little to bank on except the sympathy vote of the Marathi manoos and the possibility of gaining a foothold among the minorities.