Shiv Sena | |
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Abbreviation | SHS |
Leader | Eknath Shinde[1] |
Parliamentary Chairperson | Shrirang Barne |
Lok Sabha Leader | Shrikant Shinde |
Rajya Sabha Leader | Milind Deora |
Founder | Bal Thackeray |
Founded | 19 June 1966 |
Headquarters | Anand Ashram, Thane, Thane district, Maharashtra, India[2] |
Newspaper | Marmik Historical: Saamana[3] |
Student wing | Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena (BVS) |
Youth wing | Yuva Sena |
Women's wing | Shiv Sena Mahila Aghadi |
Ideology | Conservatism (Indian)[4] Social conservatism[5] Marathi regionalism Hindutva[6] Hindu nationalism[7] Ultranationalism[8][9][10] Economic nationalism[11] Right-wing populism[12] |
Political position | Far-right[13][14] |
Colours | Saffron |
ECI Status | State Party |
Alliance |
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Seats in Lok Sabha | 7 / 543 |
Seats in Rajya Sabha | 1 / 245 |
Seats in State Legislative Assemblies | List |
Seats in Maharashtra Legislative Council | 4 / 78 |
Election symbol | |
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Party flag | |
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Website | |
shivsenacentraloffice | |
Shiv Sena (IAST: Śhiva Sēnā) (lit. 'Army of Shivaji') is a right-wing Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by Bal Thackeray.[16] Currently led by Eknath Shinde, this party is the ruling party of the Indian state of Maharashtra since 2019. Shiv Sena's election symbol is the Bow and Arrow. It uses the saffron colour in its flag and a image of a roaring tiger.[17]
Initially apolitical, the organisation was patronised by the then Chief Minister Vasantrao Naik who used it for curbing trade unions and maintain stranglehold of the Congress.[18][19][20] The organisation at the same time carried out pro-Marathi nativist movement in Mumbai in which it agitated for preferential treatment for the Marathi people over migrants from other parts of India.[21] It ran a strong movement against South Indian people who were living in Bombay, alleging they did not respect Marathi people and their culture.
Although Shiv Sena's primary base always remained in Maharashtra, it tried to expand to a pan-Indian base. In the 1970s, it gradually moved from advocating a pro-Marathi ideology to supporting a broader Hindu nationalist agenda,[22] and aligned itself with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Shiv Sena took part in Mumbai (BMC) municipal elections for its entire existence. In 1989, it entered into an alliance with the BJP for Lok Sabha as well as Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections. The alliance in the latter was temporarily broken in the 2014 elections due to seat sharing adjustment, although it was quickly reformed. Shiv Sena was one of the founding members of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 1998, and it also participated in Vajpayee Government from 1998 to 2004 and the Narendra Modi Government from 2014 to 2019.
After 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election, the party left the alliance after disagreements with BJP over the CM post. Under Uddhav Thackeray, Shiva Sena formed an alliance with its historic rivals, the Indian National Congress and Nationalist Congress Party[23][24][25] Following the 2022 Maharashtra political crisis, the party split into two parties: Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) led by Thackeray and Eknath Shinde retaining control of the original party.
The party has had a powerful hold over the Hindi film industry.[26] It has been accused of being an "extremist",[27][28] "chauvinist",[29][30] or "fascist" party.[31][32] Shiv Sena has been allegedly involved in the 1970 communal violence in Bhiwandi, the 1984 Bhiwandi riot, and violence in the 1992–1993 Bombay riots.[33][34]
The party draws its strength from the support of the Maratha and Kunbi communities of Maharashtra which Shiv Sena drew away from the Indian National Congress.[35]
...the usually-conservative Shiv Sena has now moved to give itself a branding twist with events like 'Aaditya Samvad','Friends of Aaditya' and 'Mauli Samvad' — with a bit of advice from poll strategist Prashant Kishor.
Renominations for leaders like Chandrakant Khaire, Bhavna Gawli, Anandrao Adsul and Union minister Anant Gite for the Lok Sabha elections reflect the Shiv Sena's conservative mindset, they added
In 1995, when the conservative Shiv Sena Party took power in elections in Maharashtra state (Mumbai is its capital)...
The ball now was in the court of the BJP's oldest ally in the state as well as at the central level: the Shiv Sena, a regionalist right-wing force, which won 56 seats
"Rather than uniting Hindus against Muslims, what the duo have succeeded in doing is to alienate their own hard-core allies, namely the right-wing Shiv Sena and those erring Hindutva fans that had elected the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Assam.
Consider this. The 53-year-old Shiv Sena is a stridently right-wing Hindu party. It began as an ethnic, nativist outfit to support the interests of Mumbai's Marathi-speaking people.
Shivsena's bow-and-arrow symbol is the same as that of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.
The then chief minister of Maharashtra, Vasantrao Naik, deliberately encouraged this newly formed political grouping— despite its narrow concern with Maharashtra for Maharashtrians - to break the stranglehold of the Left unions
Rediff article: sons of the soil, lungi slogan, shakhas, south Indians in 1970, shift to Hindutva, defeat of communists/
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Shiv Sena's strength primarily came from Maratha support, which it drew away from the Congress