Clueless in defeat, Uddhav Thackeray may struggle to keep his decimated flock together
Uddhav Thackeray, who played the bold gambit of taking on the ally BJP in 2019 and forged an unlikely alliance with the Congress and NCP, was on Saturday left struggling to make sense of his party's rout in the Maharashtra assembly elections. Thackeray, whose Shiv Sena (UBT) won only 20 out of the 95 seats it contested, admitted that he could not understand how the electorate which had inflicted a drubbing on the ruling BJP-led alliance in the Lok Sabha elections only five months ago changed its mind.
Maharashtra Election Results
Jharkhand Election Results
Bypoll Election Results
From the shy son of a charismatic and firebrand Hindutva politician, the late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, Uddhav has come a long way. Early on, he survived challenges from party stalwart Narayan Rane and cousin Raj Thackeray, and went on to become the Maharashtra chief minister in November 2019 when he ended the decades-long alliance with the BJP after the assembly elections.
Soon, the COVID-19 pandemic followed, and Uddhav easily connected with the people during that difficult period as he addressed them directly by using social media tools such as Facebook live. He came across as an affable leader who could reassure people.
While his leadership during the pandemic won him praise, Uddhav Thackeray remained clueless about the simmering discontent in a big section of the party which resented the alliance with the Congress and NCP, erstwhile ideological foes. Eknath Shinde's rebellion in June 2022
