Some elite, who appear to be rightists on Twitter and other social platforms, are blaming BJP for committing a wrong on Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
They are questioning National BJP President Amit Shah's silence over implementation of "fifty-fifty" formula for power-sharing as promised by him to the party's ally and Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray in the runup to the Maharashtra elections.
They do not have faith in the clarifications given by former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and union minister Nitin Gadkari, repudiating Thackeray's claim, though both belong to Maharashtra.
They just want Shah to speak on the issue, though he had done so in he midst of election campaigns before.
Amit Shah's Pre-poll comments on 505:50 formula
Two videos of Shah are making raves on social media platforms. One is his interview with Navika Kumar of Times Now and the second with India Today's Rahul Kanwal.
In both the interviews, Shah is clearly saying there was no such 50:50 formula between BJP and Sena. Inspite of this undisputed truth, a few elite, who appear to be rightists, are not ready to accept his clarification.
These are the very people who wanted to benefit during BJP's rule, but when they failed in this endeavor, they launched vigorous attacks on BJP and at one point of time, they were also all praise for Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh.
These are the same people who had opposed former Chhattissgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh in the last assembly elections, are today complaining about being throttled by the Congress on false charges.
They wake up and seek BJP's support when their lives are under threat. What can one expect from such elite who indulge in sophistry for personal gains?
The Sena's Sophistry
One such sophistic and opportunistic party is the Sena. Readers will be surprised. In the early stages of Sena's history, the party had sought Muslim League's support to get its candidate Sudhir Joshi elected to the mayor's post after Bombay Municipal Corporation election results in 1973.
For this, late Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray had shared the stage with Muslim League leader GM Banatwala at Mastan Talao in Nagpada in South Mumbai.
Not only this, Sena also had allied with Congress (O) and had backed Murli Deora of Congress in the mayoral polls, in 1971 Lok Sabha elections and 1977 mayoral polls, respectively.
It also backed the Emergency in 1977 and did not field any candidate for the Lok Sabha polls held that year.
In 1978, Sena had allied with Congress (I) faction led by Indira Gandhi after attempts were made to forge an alliance with Janata Party failed. All 33 of its candidates lost the election in the anti-Indira wave.
The bonhomie between Congress and Sena ended in 80s after Indira's death. The relations deteriorated further during Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi's terms.
The party tilted towards Hindutva and gravitated towards the BJP, during Ramjanmabhoomi agitation in 80s and 90s, but voted for Congress-backed Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee in presidential polls.
The friendship of Balasaheb and Sharad Pawar was very thick as well. Their bonhomie goes five decades back. It was so deep that Balasaheb did not field any candidate when Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule contested 2006 Rajya Sabha polls.
Incidentally, Pawar fielded a weak candidate against Thackeray's grandson Aditya, who won by a margin of over 67,000 votes in the recent Assembly election.
To call Sena, an opportunistic party, hence will not be an exaggeration.
Does SEna Deserves CM's Post?
Being aware of Sena's sophistic and opportunistic inclinations, BJP, under Narendra Modi and Shah's leadership, understands the dangers of running a coalition government under Sena's chief ministership.
The national party is well aware of its mistake of remaining silent over Sena's goonda and extortionist politics during its rule under Manohar Joshi and Narayan Rane's chief ministership. Among many murder cases that hit media headlines then, the murder of an ordinary middle resident of Mumbai, Ramesh Kini, became the biggest controversy in 1996.
Kini was intimidated by the landlords, asking him to vacate his flat. Since the landlords were close to Thackeray family, he used to be called to the "Samana" office to put pressure on him. All of a sudden, one day he was found dead in a cinema theatre in Pune, forcing her wife to suspect the direct hand of Raj Thackeray in the crime.
This smacked off a row in political circles and Sena-BJP government tried to suppress the police investigation into the case. Even the High Court's ruling to hand over the case to CBI did not yield result as police had destroyed most of the evidence.
Despite Raj Thackeray escaping legal action, this one case really sullied Sena-BJP's image and their regime met its Waterloo in the assembly elections of 1999.
Thereafter, for almost next 15 years, both parties sat in the opposition from 1999 to 2014.
BJP only came to power when they fought election on its own and became the single largest party in 2014 elections, but formed government with Sena, who had to be content with Fadnavis as chief minister.
After 2019 assembly poll results, a controversy erupted, with Sena demanding the BJP to agree to a 50:50 formula and rotational chief ministership, which it had said, had already been discussed with Shah and Fadnavis, which both leaders refuted.
Shah and Modi are well within their rights not to give chief minister's post to Sena because it had won more number of seats.
They also are well within their rights not to hand over chief minister's baton to a Shiv Sainik who would bring the draconian goonda raj back into Maharashtra. Period.
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