- Maharashtra politics has a history of splits, shifting alliances, and rival claims over party control
- The 1969 Congress split marked a major political rupture, influencing Maharashtra's leaders like Pawar
- Shiv Sena rose from 1966, allied with BJP for decades before internal conflicts emerged post-2014
What is happening right now in Maharashtra politics is not new. A look at the state's political history shows splits, alliances changing, rival claims over party symbols, overnight governments and adversaries joining hands to keep a common rival out of power. The latest crisis engulfing the Shiv Sena is another chapter in a story that stretches back decades to the fragmentation of the Congress in the late 1960s and the rise of Sharad Pawar as a young rebel.
As both factions of the Shiv Sena mark 60 years since the party's founding, the organisation created by Bal Thackeray finds itself divided. Yet the path that brought Maharashtra to this moment was paved long ago.
The Congress Split That Changed Indian Politics
One of the defining moments in modern Indian politics came in November 1969 when the Congress party suffered a historic rupture.
The crisis had been building for months following the presidential election. It culminated when the Congress Working Committee took the extraordinary step of expelling Prime Minister Indira Gandhi from the party's primary membership.
The move triggered an open confrontation between two centres of power within the Congress.
After a three-hour meeting, 11 of the Working Committee's 21 members, led by party president S. Nijalingappa, called for an immediate meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party to elect a new leader. Gandhi's supporters, who numbered 10 members on the committee, boycotted the meeting.
Gandhi and her supporters rejected the Working Committee's decision, describing it as "illegal and invalid". They argued that she remained both a Congress member and leader of the parliamentary party so long as she enjoyed majority support among MPs.
In Parliament, a group of 167 Congress MPs assembled at a rival party headquarters and pledged support to Gandhi's leadership, declaring their commitment to protecting "democracy and socialism".
Sharad Pawar's First Political Rebellion
Following the 1969 split, many leaders in Maharashtra sided with Indira Gandhi's Congress (R) or the Requisitionists. Among them were Yashwantrao Chavan and his protege Sharad Pawar.
The deeper rupture in Maharashtra, however, emerged after Gandhi's defeat in the 1977 general election following the Emergency.
By then, Congress itself had fragmented again. Gandhi's faction became known as Congress (I) -- with the I standing for 'Indira', while a rival faction emerged as Congress (U) or United.
Pawar chose to align with Congress (U) alongside Yashwantrao Chavan.
The two Congress factions contested elections separately but later joined hands to keep the Janata Party out of power in Maharashtra. Vasantdada Patil became chief minister and Pawar joined the government as a minister.
The arrangement did not last long.
In the same year, Pawar broke away from Congress (U), assembled a coalition known as the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) with support from the Janata Party and became Maharashtra's chief minister at the age of 38.
It was one of the most significant acts of political rebellion in the state's history. His first tenure ended in 1980 when Indira Gandhi, having returned to power at the Centre, dismissed his government.
Yet Pawar's relationship with Congress remained fluid rather than permanently hostile. In 1987 he returned to the party, later explaining that he wanted to curb the growing influence of the Shiv Sena.
The Rise Of The Shiv Sena
While Congress factions battled for supremacy, another force was transforming in Maharashtra. The Shiv Sena was founded in 1966 by Bal Keshav Thackeray, better known as Balasaheb Thackeray.
A cartoonist by profession and son of social reformer Keshav "Prabhodhankar" Thackeray, Bal Thackeray built the party around the cause of the Marathi-speaking population of Maharashtra.
Over time, the Sena developed a formidable grassroots organisation, particularly in Mumbai. Its workers became known for aggressive street-level mobilisation and unwavering loyalty to the party leadership.
The party's rise eventually brought it into a long-term alliance with the BJP. For nearly 25 years, the Shiv Sena and BJP remained political partners. During much of that period, the Sena was widely regarded as the senior partner in Maharashtra.
According to political observers, that balance began shifting after 2014 when Narendra Modi became prime minister and the BJP emerged as the dominant force in national politics.
The First Sena-BJP Government
The year 1995 marked another watershed moment. For the first time, a Shiv Sena-BJP coalition came to power in Maharashtra.
Manohar Joshi became chief minister, while Gopinath Munde assumed the post of deputy chief minister. The government relied not only on the formal alliance but also on support from independents and rebel legislators.
The undivided Shiv Sena would eventually produce three chief ministers -- Manohar Joshi, Narayan Rane and Uddhav Thackeray.
Yet none completed a full five-year term.
Pawar's Second Break With Congress
In 1999, Maharashtra witnessed another major political rupture.
Sharad Pawar split from Congress over the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin and established a separate political party, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Despite the split, politics once again produced unlikely partnerships. The Congress and Pawar's new party joined hands after the election to prevent the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance from forming the government.
Vilasrao Deshmukh became chief minister. From 2004 to 2014, Pawar became an important figure within the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre and served as a Union minister.
The 2014 Turning Point
The relationship between the BJP and Shiv Sena began deteriorating significantly before the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly election.
The two parties separated ahead of the polls but reunited within months. The reconciliation, however, failed to restore trust.
That confrontation arrived after the 2019 Assembly election.
The Five-Day Government Of 2019
Few episodes better illustrate Maharashtra's political unpredictability than the events of November 23, 2019. The BJP and Shiv Sena had contested the election together, but their alliance collapsed amid disagreements over the chief minister's post.
Shiv Sena insisted on leading the government. The BJP refused.
What followed was, in an early-morning ceremony, Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as chief minister while Ajit Pawar, nephew of Sharad Pawar, took oath as deputy chief minister.
Yet the government survived only five days.
Sharad Pawar rapidly consolidated support within his party and assembled an alternative coalition bringing together the Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP.
The alliance became known as the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Uddhav Thackeray became chief minister. Ajit Pawar returned as deputy chief minister, this time within the new coalition. The BJP found itself unexpectedly pushed into opposition.
The Splits Of 2022 And 2023
The BJP's opportunity arrived in June 2022.
Eknath Shinde, a senior Shiv Sena leader who had risen through the party ranks, launched a rebellion. He secured the support of around 40 MLAs, including more than two-thirds of the Shiv Sena's legislators and several independents. The rebellion brought down Uddhav Thackeray's government.
Shinde became chief minister.
It was the most serious split in the Shiv Sena's history.
The party had experienced earlier revolts involving leaders such as Chhagan Bhujbal, Ganesh Naik, Narayan Rane and Raj Thackeray. None, however, matched the scale and consequences of the 2022 break.
Shinde's faction eventually secured recognition as the legitimate Shiv Sena and gained control of the party's famous bow-and-arrow symbol.
A year later, Maharashtra witnessed another dramatic rupture. In July 2023, Ajit Pawar led a rebellion within the NCP. He brought with him 41 of the party's 53 MLAs and joined the ruling coalition headed by Eknath Shinde.
Ajit Pawar became deputy chief minister.
The disputes over both party splits reached the Election Commission and the Supreme Court.
Ultimately, Shinde's faction was recognised as the real Shiv Sena, while Ajit Pawar's group gained recognition as the real NCP.
The consequences were severe for the original leaderships.
Both Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar lost control of their parties' names and election symbols.
A New Crisis In 2026
Following the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena faction secured nine parliamentary seats. By 2026, however, signs of another rebellion had emerged.
Six MPs submitted a letter of separation to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. A meeting of the parliamentary party was convened in Delhi, but the six MPs stayed away.
The developments fuelled speculation that Uddhav Thackeray's faction could be heading towards yet another split.
The party has around 20 MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly, making it the largest opposition party. Yet the Shinde-led Sena possesses nearly three times that number.
The Uddhav faction has also lost much of the local-government influence that once underpinned its strength. The undivided Shiv Sena controlled Mumbai's powerful Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation continuously from 1997 until 2022. That dominance ended when the tenure of corporators expired.
In the subsequent civic elections in 2026, the BJP succeeded in installing its mayor in the corporation. The Sena (UBT) now controls only one mayoral post in Maharashtra, in Parbhani Municipal Corporation.
