The Thackeray Dilemma

It is being said that the BJP is prepared to break off the alliance

Don't play cricket with Pakistan, press the nuclear button, don’t take charge of an unimportant ministry— all these statements now stand forgotten. No one seems to take Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray seriously; forget snapping cricketing ties, the Prime Minister of Pakistan himself was invited to congratulate the new Indian establishment. The nuclear button statement does not even merit discussion; and the Sena’s minister Anant Geete, having stayed away for a day, took charge with alacrity after just a phone call from Narendra Modi.

It is being said that the BJP is prepared to break off the alliance if it is not its senior partner for the Assembly polls, having an alternative ally-in-waiting in the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Without the BJP, the Shiv Sena can’t win. Without the Shiv Sena, the BJP can. This, then, is Thackeray’s dilemma—play second fiddle, or break away himself? Ego won’t allow the former, and pragmatism won’t make him go for the alternative. In the interim, there will only be noise.

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