Can Uddhav Thackeray's Tie-Up With Prakash Ambedkar Change Political Equations?

The Shiv Sena (UBT) - Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi alliance shows electoral calculations often matter more than ideology.

The upcoming elections will be hugely important for both Thackeray and Ambedkar – the two grandsons of two great personalities, banking on their political lineage to stay relevant in politics.

(Photo: Altered by Namita Chauhan/ The Quint)

(This article was first published on 2 December 2022 and is being republished from The Quint's archives as Shiv Sena (UBT) and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi formally announced their alliance in a press conference in Mumbai on 23 January.)

As Uddhav Thackeray looks to rebuild his party after Eknath Shinde’s rebellion split it into two factions, he seems open to taking as many allies on-board as possible. Thackeray did not just lose power after Shinde’s rebellion, he was also left with a greatly diminished party as the majority of the MLAs and MPs deserted him. Since then he has lost control over the party’s name as well as the party symbol.

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), as his faction is now known, joined hands with Sambhaji Brigade in August, which more or less went unnoticed because Brigade is known for its cultural politics and doesn’t have any influence in electoral politics. However, the news of its alliance with Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) has generated sufficient interest in Maharashtra politics.

VBA state president Rekha Thakur announced in a press conference on Tuesday, 29 November that the leaders of the two parties have been in talks and the discussion so far has been positive. She also stated that it was up to Shiv Sena to decide whether it would ally with the VBA separately or as a part of the broader Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition that includes Congress and Nationalist Congress Party as well.

Not Exactly Natural Allies

Shiv Sena (UBT) and VBA cannot be called natural allies. Shiv Sena projects itself as a hardline Hindutva party, which was reiterated by its leaders multiple times on the stage of the party’s Dussehra rally in October. 

“The core of the Dalit politics in Maharashtra is strongly anti-Hindutva,” Ajinkya Gaikwad, who teaches political science at Mumbai's SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, told The Quint. He said that even the supporters of Ramdas Athawale share anti-Hindutva, anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) posts and memes on social media, forgetting who their leader is in alliance with. Ambedkar, on the other hand, is known for being fiercely anti-Hindutva and committed to his grandfather, B R Ambedkar’s ideology.

Ambedkar has criticised Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray on multiple occasions in the past as their positions throughout the 1980s and 1990s were opposed to each other. For example, the senior Thackeray was against changing Marathwada University’s name to BR Ambedkar’s. He used this issue to inflame the passions of Savarnas against the Dalit community throughout the 1980s, which resulted in violence on many occasions. It is said that Shiv Sena managed to establish itself in the Marathwada region riding on this issue. (The name was finally expanded to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in 1994 after 17 years' struggle.)

Ambedkar and Thackeray had come into direct conflict on the issue of publication of BR Ambedkar’s book Riddles in Hinduism in 1987. During this controversy, Thackeray had delivered many extremist speeches. Thackeray also opposed the implementation of the Mandal Commission report in 1990, which Ambedkar was in favour of. And when the police fired at Dalits in Mumbai’s Ramabai Nagar in 1997, resulting in the death of 10 people, it was Shiv Sena that was in power (in alliance with the BJP) at that time.

Post-Ideological Shiv Sena?

Gaikwad told The Quint that the junior Thackeray is trying to shape a post-ideological party that will go to voters offering a better governance model. He also said that Shiv Sena (UBT) will have to appear secular if it has to stay in alliance with the Congress and NCP.

It was significant that Thackeray and Ambedkar appeared together on a stage recently for an event about Prabodhankar Thackeray – the grandfather of Uddhav – who is considered a progressive figure in Maharashtra’s cultural politics. Thakur informed that the two spoke on the sidelines of the event about the alliance for about 10 minutes.

If one goes by Uddhav’s track record so far, he appears more like his grandfather in ideological orientation than his father. Unlike his father, Uddhav has stayed away from extremist speech and doesn’t indulge in denigration of his opponents by using foul language. And even though he claims again and again that his party is committed to Hindutva, his speeches don't have the anti-Muslim rhetoric that was common to his father’s speeches.

When questioned about Ambedkar's criticism of the Shiv Sena founder, Thakur told The Quint, “Ideology is of course important in electoral politics but Shiv Sena has changed in the recent years. The political scene too is completely different now.”

In July, Shiv Sena (UBT) inducted Sushma Andhare, a Bahujan leader known for her Ambedkarite politics, into the party. She was also given the opportunity to speak at the Dussehra rally, which is considered an honour in the party.

Gaikwad stated that Thackeray needs Dalit votes if it has to perform well in the upcoming Mumbai municipality elections, especially in constituencies such as Kurla and Chembur. The alliance with the VBA will help him in that regard. 

The VBA didn’t manage to win a single seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well as the Maharashtra assembly elections held in the same year. However, it managed to amass a significant share of votes and even came second in a few constituencies. Hence, it would certainly hope that an alliance with the bigger parties as a part of Maha Vikas Aghadi would help it convert those vote shares into a winning margin this time around.

Ambedkar has been in electoral politics since the 1980s but has failed to emerge as a strong contender in state politics. On the other hand, Thackeray inherited a party that was already a big player in Maharashtra but the Shinde rebellion has done so much damage that he is now fighting for survival. The upcoming elections will be hugely important for both Thackeray and Ambedkar – the two grandsons of two great personalities, banking on their political lineage to stay relevant in politics – and it will be interesting to see what role their alliance plays in it.