Is it a 'dig' or attempt to reach out ? ::::: Uddhav Thackeray sounds 'helpless' on a day his new find mentor Sharad Pawar got it on nose ? :::: 'We were with you (BJP), never gave up Hindutva'

'We were with you, but you threw us away', almost cries - Uddhav Thackeray

It may not be a pure jibe at the BJP. Parting ways with its good old saffron ally has proved so much 'bad' to Bal Thackeray's son. Is he regretting turning Sickular? Should he also also blame his wife and son ??  

Downfall has a Congress connection: Is Uddhav regretting ?

"Even today, we haven't left Hindutva. We can't do that. Today also, the saffron flag is with us." -- this sounds a loaded statement.  

Firstly, the remark is to woo Hindu votes especially at a time when the country is reeling under 'Ram-Leher'. But this could also mean a missive to PM Narendra Modi and BJP stalwart and Modi's Home Minister, Amt Shah. 

But it is also true, the shenanigans Uddhav indulged in falling 'entrapped' by Sharad Pawar in 2019 had left Shah leaking his wounds like a proverbial lion.  

Hence, what had started unfolding since 2022 -- first the downfall of Uddhav's government, split in the Shiv Sena and then the split in NCP were all on 'expected' lines for those --who knew the style of politics played by the likes of Shah. 

 -- The rival is a rival, and can be befriended like Naveen Patnaik; but the message to 'betrayers' like Uddhav and Sharad Pawar for 'encouraging that betrayal'; the game, the lesson and the tools to give the 'lesson' ought to be different. 

It ought to be more crude !  I spoke to a former Maharashtra Governor -- who still tracks developments in the western state -- and not quite surprisingly, he said, "The original stakeholders are losing out their shares....new players are chipping in". 

This is the precisely the Maharashtra story of 2024. ---Now all eyes are on whether Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand will go for polls along with the crucial Lok Sabha battle.  

If Amit Shah asks Narendra Modi, "What shall we do?"

Modi can say easily : "Amit bhai .... Loha garam hae...mardo hathoda 

(Iron is hot, it's time you hit it strong) 

Since Independence, politics has mainly centered around the Indian National Congress, which ruled the country for a total 52 years with the odd interval. It was a dominance that waned in 2014 and the 2019 elections virtually ended it.

For 2024, no less than PM Narendra Modi himself said in Lok Sabha (Feb 5, 2024) :: the opposition and Congress could even land in Visitors' Gallery !! 

Moreover, now that the people and electorate has placed BJP at the center as the new national party with 303 Lok Sabha seats, Indian political history has shed the status quo - the intellectuals and ivory tower Sickular bus-wallahs were so comfortable with.

Even in a 'tough for BJP' state such as West Bengal -- where the Lotus party faced social ‘pariah’ status for long with organisational weaknesses -- the party had won 18 Lok Sabha MPs – almost three times its motley crew of seven legislators in the state Assembly (in 2019).  

Take another state of Mizoram -- where the political refrain used to be Lotus can never bloom in hard rocks of Mizoram.

In 2023 polls, after contesting for 23 seats in the 40-member assembly, the BJP won 2 seats -- that is one more from 2018 tally. In contrast, the Congress contested all 40 seats and could win only one. It's four short of 2018 figures. 

These data came out in a year when the Mizo-Kuki-Zo people were immensely irked with the BJP for the Manipur crisis. And also, PM Narendra Modi avoided campaigning in Mizoram this year. 

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