Party rose outside Mumbai post ’86
The merger of the Congress (Samajwadi) with the Congress and the renaming of Marathawada University at Aurangabad helped the Shiv Sena’s growth outside Mumbai after 1986 which emerged as a party of non-Marathas with aggressive Hindutva different from the RSS.
Mr Sharad Pawar merged the Congress (Samajwadi) with the parent party in the presence of Rajiv Gandhi at Aurangabad in 1986 at a time when it was consolidating non-Congress parties and attracting rural and semi urban youth in Western Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha regions.
Balasaheb Thackeray expanded his “Marathi manoos” line by adopting strong Hindutva after realising his organisation could get a political space in Maharashtra through tactical alliance with the BJP. He accommodated youth after the Congress (Samajwadi)’s merger. However, he deliberately maintained a separate identity of the Shiv Sena by declining to be a part of the Sangh Parivar.
Significantly, his opposition to the Mandal Commission report did not make a dent in the Shiv Sena’s support base among the OBCs for the simple reason that he tried to change the grammar of politics in the state. This had attracted youth and lower middle class. The Shiv Sena found political space in the Marathwada and Varhand in Vidarbha regions outside Mumbai and Konkan. If his hard Hindutva clicked in Marathwada which was part of the erstwhile Hyderabad state, his Hindutva line weaken the Congress’s support base outside Western Maharas-htra. Interestingly, the coalition era began with the Shiv Sena’s rise outside Mumbai.
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PM cancels dinner for bjp leaders
Age Correspondent
New Delhi, Nov. 17
Prime Minister Manm-ohan Singh cancelled the dinner for senior BJP leaders after the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj made a request to him following the passing away of the Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray on Saturday.
After hosting dinner for the UPA allies on Friday, the Prime Minister had invited senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitely and Ms Swaraj for dinner on Saturday. However, Ms Swaraj called up the Prime Minister after the news came of the demise of Thackeray to request him to cancel the scheduled dinner. Later the Prime Minister’s office tweeted the cancellation of the dinner meeting.
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