Among Muslims in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena (UBT) emerges as surprise “Right choice” in tough field | Analysis
The 2024 Lok Sabha polls are being seen as a semi-final to the final reckoning of the dramatic redrawing of political boundaries in Maharashtra with the one act of walking out of the NDA by Uddhav Thackeray. | Photo Credit: PTI The paradigm shift that occurred in Maharashtra politics in 2019, when the then united Shiv Sena walked out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, along with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the State, is perhaps best exemplified by the fact that leaders of the Muslim community are now looking at the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) as its most likely bet in these elections, even from among the MVA constituents. According to Ghulam Arif, convenor of the “Community Talking” platform, a debating group among the Muslim community in Maharashtra, it has not been an easy journey from the community’s alienation from the Shiv Sena since before the 1992 riots following the destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, to being the first …