Ahead of Mumbai civic polls, Thackeray cousins woo communities they once targeted – Hindustan Times

On Monday, October 18, two Hindu seers visited Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray’s house at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai’s Dadar area. Guru Ma Kanchan Giriji and Jagatguru Suryacharaji hail from Uttar Pradesh, and both had criticised Raj’s cousin Uddhav Thackeray, the president of the Shiv Sena party and the chief minister of Maharashtra, for “abandoning the cause of Hindutva.”

“We want a Hindu rashtra (Hindu nation). Raj Thackeray supports the Hindutva ideology and the best thing about him is he does what he says,” said Guru Ma Kanchan Giriji soon after meeting the 53-year-old nephew of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray. “Since both BJP and Raj Thackeray share a Hindutva ideology, they should come together,” she added. The two spiritual leaders were in town to convince Hindi belt voters in Mumbai to side with MNS, which has developed a soft alliance with the BJP, one that could convert into a partnership when the elections near.

Earlier this year, in January, a year ahead of the 2022 Mumbai civic elections, Shiv Sena launched a massive on-ground campaign to get the Gujarati and Jain communities – traditionally BJP voters – on its side. The theme of the party’s first event: ‘Mumbai ma jalebi ne fafda, Uddhav Thackeray aapda’ (Jalebi and fafda in Mumbai, Uddhav Thackery is ours). The Shiv Sena plans to hold monthly events to attract the elusive Gujarati and Jain voter to consolidate its hold on the city’s municipal corporation, the country’s richest with a 2021-22 budget of ₹39,083 crore.

In Shiv Sena’s annual Dussehra rally on October 15, Uddhav’s statements seemed to point towards the burying of the linguistic-divide hatchet, something the party is backing to help it succeed in the BMC election. “I believe Hindutva is now under threat,” Uddhav said. “Those who have used the ladder of Hindutva can now use the strategy of the British of divide and rule. They will create a divide between Marathis and non-Marathis. They will erect a wall within Marathis on basis of caste and community, to continue to enjoy the power in the Centre. Marathi people must unite by forgetting their differences. The division between Marathis and non-Marathis should also be buried.”

Sena chief spokesperson and former Union minister Arvind Sawant said the Sena was never anti-Gujarati or anti-south Indians. “We were against the injustice meted out to the sons of the soil. A person born in Maharashtra, whether he is Gujarati or Tamilian, is a son of the soil. Our people were not getting jobs, so Balasaheb had to pick up the issue of Marathi manoos.”

In a political twist of fate, therefore, both MNS and Shiv Sena seem to be wooing the same communities they once targeted as part of their “sons of the soil” agenda.

Shiv Sena, founded in June 1966, fought elections on the “rights to the Marathi manoos” plank. Four decades later, in March 2006, Raj Thackeray founded MNS following an ugly succession spat with his cousin Uddhav. In the quest for a political agenda, Raj invoked the same anti-north Indian migrant workers’ card – including beating up taxi drivers who hailed from UP and Bihar – that the original Sena had used to consolidate its Marathi support base. Shiv Sena had also launched a bitter campaign in its initial decades against the Gujarati and the Jain communities in Mumbai and its suburbs.

No longer. Uddhav’s Shiv Sena wants these communities to shift loyalties from BJP, while Raj’s MNS wants to get closer to the north Indian community to cement its relationship with BJP.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

MNS leaders assert the party’s anti-north Indian image was created by the media. Nitin Sardesai, senior MNS leader, said, “Our stand as anti-north Indian was always misunderstood. Raj Saheb, in a 2018 gathering of north Indians, had clearly said that it was the failure of states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to create jobs. If locals won’t get jobs there, migration is bound to happen. When locals here won’t get jobs, friction with migrants is a natural outcome.” Another senior party leader, Bala Nandgaonkar said the party “has never opposed north Indians living in Mumbai for generations.”

Meanwhile, a key Shiv Sena leader, said on the condition of anonymity, “The BJP is looking at a combination of Gujarati, north Indian and middle-class Maharashtrian votes to win Mumbai as well adjoining cities in next year’s civic polls. If they are going to dent our voter base, we have to do the same with theirs. Gujaratis are a better option because the community is not hostile to the Sena under Uddhavji and Aadityaji (Aaditya Thackeray, Uddhav’s son and the state’s environment minister).”

The roots of Shiv Sena’s uneasy relationship with the Gujarati and Jain communities dates back to the Samyukta Maharashtra (United Maharashtra) movement when Gujarat and Maharashtra were carved out of the then Bombay Presidency in 1960. Both states wanted Mumbai (then Bombay) as their capital, but the Central government ruled in favour of Maharashtra.

Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, a political cartoonist, began targeting the Gujarati community in his artworks. Political historians point to the Sena’s apparent grudge against the lack of private jobs for the Marathi-speaking locals in businesses dominated by the Gujarati, Jain and Marwari communities. Political analyst Hemant Desai said, “Since Samyukta Maharashtra movement the Gujarati-Marathi divide was created as Morarji Desai wanted Mumbai to be a part of Gujarat, which the Sena had vehemently opposed. Later, they (Sena) saw that private jobs came from these communities, and this furthered the divide.”

In addition to these communities, the senior Thackeray launched a campaign against South Indians who, according to the Sena, were “usurping jobs in banks, corporations and Central government offices in Mumbai.” Desai added, “Balasaheb started the movement against south Indians largely on the basis of jobs. The banks had a lobby which would not give jobs to Marathis. Competency was also an issue with the Marathis.”

Raj’s evolution as MNS leader was no different. His outfit called for forcibly evicting north Indian migrant workers from Mumbai and Maharashtra. In 2008, MNS workers attacked north Indians in Mumbai and other districts including Pune, Nashik and Aurangabad. They also assaulted north Indian candidates who appeared for the all-India Railway Recruitment Board entrance exams. The violent campaign yielded electoral dividends. In the 2009 Maharashtra assembly elections, MNS won 13 seats out 288, five of them in Mumbai. However, the party’s drop in influence coincided with the emergence of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government in 2014 with Narendra Modi as prime minister. That year, the MNS won just a single assembly seat in Maharashtra, and none from Mumbai. The story repeated in the 2019 elections. “MNS only tasted success in 2009 and in Nashik civic body in 2012. Lack of organisational strength and direction to the party led to the decline in their fortune,” Desai said.

SHIFT IN STANCE

Earlier this year, Raj officially veered towards Hindutva with a new saffron flag for the party with a seal of Chhatrapati Shivaji in the middle. “We wanted to signify our connection not only with Marathi people in particular, but also Hindus in general,” an MNS functionary said.

Guru Ma Kanchan Giriji, one of the two seers who met Raj on Monday, said the MNS chief is loved by north Indians and that “they needn’t fear him.”

In December 2018, Raj had addressed a gathering of north Indians under the aegis of the Uttar Bhartiya Mahapanchayat (UBM), a non-governmental organisation. In that event, he reached out to the community saying other states must also build infrastructure and economic might to help local people get jobs. “I want north Indians to understand my side of things,” he said then. “What was wrong in asking for Maharashtrian youth to be given priority in jobs over other migrants? With 13.5 crore people in the state, we don’t have enough space to walk on the roads because of a huge inflow of migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh,” he said. “We understand your situation but change needs to come from within the community. You have to tell your own people that now no space is left in Maharashtra, so please don’t come here.”

Soon after the unlikely post-poll alliance of Shiv Sena, Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2019 to form the state government, MNS gravitated towards BJP, which, to be sure, could not openly have an alliance with Raj as it would risk alienating its north Indian voters. Hence, it was left to Raj to woo the north Indian voter instead. As part of this outreach campaign, Raj is expected to visit Ayodhya in December this year.

Similarly, the Shiv Sena – as part of its Gujarati outreach programme – organised gatherings to drum up support for Uddhav’s handling of the pandemic, and what Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray did for the community during the 1992-93 Mumbai riots.

Shiv Sena’s change in stance also coincides with a gradual mellowing of the party’s hardline posture on Hindutva and its approach towards non-Marathi communities, with a more liberal Aaditya playing a key role in the party’s evolution. Insiders say that Sena is wooing the Gujarati community because it knows it cannot win Mumbai civic polls only on the basis of Marathi votes. “The population dynamic of Mumbai has altered. The Marathi population has not grown as much as the people from the other communities. Gujaratis, Jains and Marwaris account for a significant number of voters in Mumbai and so political parties will take that into consideration,” said Mumbai-based political analyst Surendra Jondhale.

THE POLITICAL CALCULATION

MNS and Shiv Sena largely share the same vote base – Marathi manoos (Marathi person). However, the Mumbai electoral pie has other factors. As per the 2011 census, the Gujarati-speaking population in Mumbai was 19%, while Jain community (which also largely speaks Gujarati) was 4.5%. In 2011, Mumbai’s population was 12.4 million. Over the last 10 years, these numbers would have increased significantly to impact the outcome of the BMC polls.

In the 2017 Mumbai municipal election, Shiv Sena won 84 of the 226 seats and just about managed to retain its senior partner position with BJP, which won had 82 and pocketed seats in the western suburbs largely dominated by non-Marathi population.

Political analysts said the BJP performed well in 2017 as it adopted a development agenda. “Since 2014, the BJP had taken up the development agenda. In Maharashtra, under Devendra Fadnavis, the government took up several infrastructure projects. In Mumbai Metro project was pushed. Having their CM also helped BJP in BMC election,” said Jondhale.

Sena spokesperson Sawant acknowledged that the Marathi population in Mumbai has remained constant, while the non-Marathi population has increased. This time, though, Shiv Sena is likely to bank on its Covid-19 performance as well. Insiders say that, as a chief minister with no prior administrative experience, Uddhav Thackeray managed to keep the pandemic under control and created large-scale public health infrastructure.

BJP, on the other hand, is expected to use the resentment of traders and business owners against the Thackeray government for a prolonged Covid-19 lockdown in Mumbai.

Jondhale, a former political science professor at Mumbai University, said, “Uddhav Thackeray had earlier said that politics of religion was not good. He has not disavowed Hindutva, but he is speaking on it because BJP is trying to corner him on that issue. Besides, he is focusing more on governance which will help his party overall, not just in the BMC polls.” He added that calling Raj Thackeray as the new Hindutva icon would be “exaggeration”. He wondered if Raj would risk losing the Marathi youth following in order to gain the trust of north Indians. “He (Raj) has the charisma, but it never translated into votes for him. When Uddhav gives directions to his party, he has the organisational strength to execute his plan, unlike Raj.”

He added, “Even BJP doesn’t have it as strong as the Sena does at the ward level. But they make up for it with two faces, Devendra Fadnavis and Narendra Modi.” javascript:selectTab(’tab-panel’, ‘tabExtra’);