Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut has assured that there will be no INDIA bloc alliance in the upcoming Maharashtra civic body elections, including the high-voltage contests for Mumbai and the other prominent municipal corporations.
The attention will instead be on the possibility of an alliance between the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), with increasing public opinion nudging both the parties in that direction.
In an interview with The Economic Times, Raut stated that the re-united alliance of the Thackeray cousins — following a 20-year-long estrangement — has generated excitement on the ground, particularly as both sides have come together against what they term as the BJP's aggressive move to make Hindi dominant in Maharashtra. "Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray getting together after 20 years.". has drawn huge public support," Raut added, noting that residents are now urging both sides to contest the next municipal elections together.
Raut, who was instrumental as a facilitator in the six-month-long negotiations that resulted in the Thackeray cousins reconciliation, said their common struggle is to save the Marathi language and culture. "There is public pressure on Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS leadership to enter into an electoral alliance for the local body polls, including the municipal polls in Mumbai and other corporations," he said.
Referring to the role of the INDIA alliance — consisting of the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), Sharad Pawar's NCP (SCP), and other allies — in the civic polls, Raut was unambiguous: "There will be no INDIA bloc arrangement in Maharashtra local polls. INDIA bloc was intended only for contesting the assembly and Lok Sabha elections."
This is a strategic departure, with the state elections being isolated from national and state-level coalition politics. The Sena (UBT)–MNS alliance is being pushed by street-level momentum and is viewed as an attempt to re-emphasize the 'Marathi manoos' agenda, a reference to the fundamental ideology of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray. The dominant role of Hindutva-inspired street politics with a cultural appeal for their erstwhile hard core base is also indicated by the tie-up.
Other than the BMC, the two could together hold polls in other major urban hubs such as Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivli, Ulhasnagar, Nashik, and Sambhaji Nagar–Aurangabad.
Fending off questions of not allying with Congress in the past — also with a strong urban following, especially in Mumbai — Raut replied local politics is very different from national polls. "Local body election has a different dynamics, and it merits a Sena-MNS alliance now. Congress too will contest these elections, possibly alone," he said. He mentioned how even when Shiv Sena and BJP were partners at the national and state level in 2017, they fought the BMC election separately — something that ultimately led to the eventual dissolution of their alliance in 2019.
Congress leaders are said to be eagerly awaiting this shift and gearing up for a solo campaign. The increased SS(UBT)–MNS resistance against Hindi imposition has also highlighted the cultural messaging divergence between Maharashtra and Bihar — where Congress is joined by RJD, a party closely associated with the linguistic and regional predispositions of north Indians.
With the civic polls tentatively scheduled to take place alongside the Bihar elections, the differential approaches adopted by regional INDIA bloc allies could perhaps indicate deeper fault lines within the opposition coalition as it tries to balance state-specific identities and poll realities.
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