Desperate times call for desperate measures. Despite both parties being staunch rivals in the past and the tall claims of Shiv Sena being a Hindutva party, Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena has entered into an alliance with Asaduddin Owaisi led AIMIM for the Standing Committee President polls in the Amravati Municipal Corporation, reports Swarajya.
According to the report, Shiv Sena will now contest the Amravati Municipal Corporation Committee elections in alliance with AIMIM.
Interestingly, in the last Amravati Municipal Corporation elections conducted in 2017, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) registered an emphatic win by securing 42 out of 87 seats. Shiv Sena managed to bag 9 Congress 16 and AIMIM 10.
Probably, in its last efforts to take away the reigns from the hands of BJP this time, Shiv Sena has got into this unholy alliance with AIMIM, which until yesterday was railing against the “communal” Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
On March 12, during the release of its ally AMMK’s manifesto, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi had taken a dig at the Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra while slamming DMK for declaring itself secular. He questioned why then DMK had joined hands with the Congress that supported the “communal” Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
“The Shiv Sena was pleased with the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the Congress had supported the celebration in Maharashtra”, Owaisi said taking a dig at the Hindutva proponent, Uddhav Thackray led party.
In 2019, after the Shiv Sena announced an alliance with Congress and NCP, in Maharashtra, Owaisi had slammed Shiv Sena over their stand on ‘Secular’ ideology after the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra. Owaisi had mocked the parties by saying that “let them perform Nikah (marriage) first”. He had also refused to support the alliance.
The way this sudden U-turn by Asaduddin Owaisi can be attributed to his hankering to emerge as a national party, likewise, Shiv Sena’s flip flops can also be accredited to its desperation to keep BJP at bay in Maharashtra, for which Uddhav Thackeray-led party had snapped its ties with the BJP and formed an alliance with the ideological rivals-NCP and Congress, sacrificing its support for Hindutva on the altar of chief ministerial position.