Mumbai sources stated that five years ago, shortly after the lok sabha results were announced, the shiv sena leadership was excited, having notched up its highest ever tally with 18 seats. Meanwhile being the second largest party in the national democratic alliance, the Sena leadership was certain of a plum role in the government.
Furthermore buoyed, Sena chief uddhav thackeray, facing the first major election after father Bal Thackeray’s death, decided to fly to New delhi for the swearing-in, a move unexpected for a Thackeray. Apparently till hours before the ceremony, the bjp refused to disclose details of how many cabinet slots and portfolios were to be allotted to the Sena and Uddhav was incensed and wanted to pull out of the ceremony.
A Sena insider recounts “The bjp had trapped him it brought him to delhi and put him in such a spot that he was forced to attend”. Further the bjp gave the Sena’s Anant Geete the Heavy industries portfolio, an uninspiring berth about which the Sena was publicly unhappy, but powerless to do much about. Further that incident, the aide says, woke Uddhav up to the new dynamics that would mark the Sena-BJP relationship.
