Months after pompous anti-BJP rallies, Raj Thackeray meets Devendra Fadnavis

A meet between Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray and BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis on January 7 has given rise to speculations over a possible tie-up between the two parties.

According to an NDTV report, Raj Thackeray began talks with the BJP after a fallout with his cousin and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, who is now the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Insiders have revealed that the MNS chief wants his ideological shift to reflect on the party’s flag, by changing the blue, green, and saffron flag to just saffron.

This move is of significance by virtue of being in direct contrast to Raj Thackeray’s approach towards the BJP last year during the Lok Sabha elections. In the run-up to the 2019 general election, the MNS chief had spared no opportunity to hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah.

His party had gone to the extent of preparing and broadcasting multimedia presentations to highlight the discrepancies in what BJP promises and how much it delivers. While the rallies were no doubt a crowd-puller, the audience couldn’t stop thinking about the unabashed support he had extended to the BJP and particularly PM Modi, before the party came to power in 2014. Thackeray’s party had won only 13 seats then, which went further down to one in October 2019.

Hence, Raj Thackeray's move is being seen as a measure to mend his party’s shrinking presence in Maharashtra politics.

However, the unlikely union that is might take shape is not a departure from convention, since the Shiv Sena too recently joined hands with rivals Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress. The move came after BJP and Sena severed its years-old ties over a power scuffle after Maharashtra Assembly elections in October last year.

On the occasion of marking his political debut, Uddhav Thackeray had invited his estranged cousin to the November 28 oath-taking ceremony too. The gesture was largely viewed as a sign of a thaw between the two Thackerays, but the recent development hints otherwise.