The Congress and the Shiv Sena, albeit the faction headed by Uddhav Thackeray, are allies in the coming Assembly elections in Maharashtra. However, till some years ago, the Congress and the Sena were political opponents, ideologically poles apart.
Former Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde recounts such a time in his memoir ‘Five Decades in Politics – as told to Rasheed Kidwai’, as he remembers his friendship with then Sena chief Bal Thackeray, the relationship often raising eyebrows but surviving the political differences between the two leaders.
Shinde recollects in the book that he first met Thackeray senior just after he had joined politics and was a member of Sharad Pawar’s inner circle. “While many other leaders distanced themselves from him for various reasons, I remained a friend of the Sena chief... He would often acknowledge, publicly, that I had been unfairly denied the chief ministership because I was a Dalit, despite being the most suitable for the job,” he says.
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He recounts an incident, which he says brings out Thackeray’s sensitivity, that not many politicians from a rival camp may be capable of. The backdrop of the incident was that their parties were headed for a tussle against each other in an election.
Shinde was contesting against the Sena-BJP candidate, and Thackeray had come to Solapur to campaign for the alliance. Shinde wanted to meet him and hoping that no media person would be there, he went to Thackeray’s hotel suite. However, the place was swarming with television crews. Thackeray made sure the media left them alone. “Thackeray noticed that the media photographers were zooming in on me. Another leader might have caused havoc by making me stand by his side for a photograph, but Thackeray told the journalists not to film us together, lest someone misused the visuals for political purposes,” Shinde recollects.
The veteran Congress leader also remembers that there were quite a few eyebrows when Thackeray attended his daughter’s wedding in Mumbai. The Sena-BJP alliance was in power then.
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In 2003, when Shinde contested an assembly by-election to validate his stay in office after he was appointed chief minister, the Sena did not contest. “Nobody bought Thackeray’s argument that he was not interested in the by-election because the term of the winner would be a short one (twenty-one months, as it turned out),” says Shinde.
Shinde says although he had cordial relations with Thackeray, he could not justify his politics or the tools he adopted. He refers to Thackeray’s sharp tongue and his views about Muslims. But Shinde adds that Thackeray was different in private. “One of my bodyguards was a Muslim and Balasaheb cared a lot about him.”
Uddhav, as per Shinde, has taken his father’s legacy forward but will take time to learn. He says the Congress-Sena alliance was necessary and he sees a fruitful partnership between the Sena, Congress and the NCP. “The MVA alliance also led to a softening of the Sena’s Hindutva plank. As far as I am concerned, it was an astute political move.”
Five Decades In Politics
By Sushil Kumar Shinde – as told to Rasheed Kidwai
Published by Harper Collins
Price Rs 599
Pages 219