Role reversal

Hindutva kept them together for 25 years. Electoral politics caused them to separate just ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections. But it's not just a parting of ways. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest bloc on the back of a Modi wave and its stalwarts are now displaying a very different approach towards their former ally. When the Shiv Sena grumbles at the BJP's reluctance to take it on as a ruling ally in the state government, the BJP MLAs are heard reminding the Sena that so far it was the Bal Thackeray's party that called the shots and the BJP had had no option but to comply for a quarter century. Now, they say, its the Shiv Sena's turn to follow Modi or be ready to chart its own path, which may be a tough task for the party in the absence of its founding mentor.