The Shiv Sena founded by the late Balasaheb Keshav Thackeray in 1966 may have little reason to celebrate its Diamond Jubilee tomorrow – in his birth centenary year. For the second time in four years today, the party – now, Shiv Sena (UBT) - has suffered a potential split, ironically led by Eknath Shinde who first broke away on June 21, 2022. Political soothsayers aver that this time the bodily harm is serious and the wound goes deep, so the party - which espoused the cause of the ordinary Marathi manoos and the lofty Hindutva - may not survive another hit in future. In the past 60-years of its high-profile existence - in power for around17-and-half years and the rest in the limelight – the party has had its share of rebellions and splits, but it managed to bounce back due to the sheer awe of the Thackeray surname. It all started 35 years ago with the doughty Chhagan Bhujbal who dared to bare the Shiv Sena’s shortcomings and quit in Dec. 1991 – stunning the party that ran on the signals or just a wave of Balasaheb’s hand. His abrupt exit along with 18 MLAs after a tiff with his mentor. Though many MLAs returned as Balasaheb roared his disapproval, Bhujbal seemed to politically flourish and made it to the post of Deputy CM, and later as Minister for many years. After deserting Balasaheb, Bhujbal had joined the Congress, then led by Sharad Pawar who later broke off to form the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 1999 where Bhujbal followed him. However, in July 2023, when the late Ajit Pawar split the party founded by his uncle, Bhujbal went with him, dumping his original Guru, Sharad Pawar, now left with the NCP (SP). Come 2005, there was another huge blow when ex-Chief Minister and the then Leader of Opposition in Assembly Narayan Rane was expelled by Balasaheb following (Rane’s) differences with Uddhav Thackeray, then the party’s Executive President. Rane hopped over to the Congress on the assurance of getting the CM’s gaddi, but it never came, so he quit the party to form his own outfit, which he merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party and became a union minister. In November 2005, Balasaheb’s nephew Raj Thackeray resigned from the party after multiple tiffs with his cousin, Uddhav, and four months later, founded the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which has yet to taste power. For nearly two decades, the warring cousins were practically at each other’s political throats, but in mid-2025, they finally hugged, kissed and made up for the larger cause of Marathi language, the Marathi Manoos, and other common points. When Uddhav broke ranks with the BJP to become the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Chief Minister, he got a rudest jolt of his life when Eknath Shinde masterminded a rebellion, took away 40 MLAs and toppled him from the ‘gaddi’. Shinde allied with the BJP to become the CM of the Maha Yuti government for almost two-and-half years. However, after the Nov. 2024 elections, the BJP made him the Deputy CM, and later Ajit Pawar joined as the second Deputy CM in July 2023. When the MVA of SS (UBT), Congress and NCP (SP) notched a spectacular performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections getting 31 of the 48 seats they contested, all eyes were on its MPs, but later the Maha Yuti romped home in the November 2024 Assembly elections. After long planning and strategizing, Shinde allegedly launched the Operation Tiger and is one the verge of weaning away 6 out of 9 SS (UBT) Lok Sabha MPs – a second vertical split the Uddhav-led party suffered in four years. Over the past three decades, there were other ‘ayarams’ and ‘gayarams’ including the aggressive Sanjay Nirupam, who quit the (undivided) Shiv Sena, joined the Congress and is currently with Shinde’s party.
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