Eknath Shinde’s long game: As Mahayuti equations evolve, he races to build Shiv Sena’s ‘rural backbone’
In the run-up to the Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti polls in 12 districts on Saturday, Maharashtra Deputy CM went on a campaigning spree, addressing 22 rallies in five days
Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee) In the last few elections in Maharashtra, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has established itself as the dominant Sena group with 57 MLAs and a host of municipal corporations under its belt, along with ally BJP. However, it has one major weakness.
The party continues to heavily depend on its MLAs and urban corporators, with its rural organisation still uneven and its village network being rebuilt following the 2022 split. This is a structural gap that Shinde wants to close and that is why, in the past few days, the Deputy CM stepped up campaigning for the February 7 Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections in 12 districts. Building the Sena’s “rural backbone”, a party insider said, was of utmost importance.
In the past five days, Shinde addressed 22 rallies in districts such as Sangli, Kolhapur, Satara, and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, mixing development promises with organisational messaging. This big push by the Deputy CM stands out because these are not statewide elections and are being held in districts that have historically not been the Sena’s favoured battleground.
“The civic body polls were successful. Now we are strengthening the rural structure. This is not just about Zilla Parishads. It is preparation for 2029,” said a senior Sena leader. Winning these rural bodies will allow the party to embed itself in villages, build its base, and provide it with leverage within the ruling Mahayuti alliance before the next Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.
While the Sena is contesting as part of the Mahayuti in most districts, the tone of the campaign suggests something more than alliance arithmetic is at play. At rallies in Sangli and Kolhapur, Shinde repeatedly told workers that the party must not remain confined to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. “We are a workers’ party. There is no owner here. Every village must have our presence,” the Deputy CM said in Kolhapur.
Sena leaders admitted that the push was aimed at strengthening the party’s bargaining power within the Mahayuti. A stronger rural footprint allows Shinde to negotiate from a position of organisational depth rather than relying solely on legislative numbers. “This is about showing that Sena is not limited to Mumbai and Thane. We want to become the second-largest force in the state after the BJP,” said a senior leader.
The timing matters. The Congress has weakened in several districts and the NCP remains divided between the Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar groups. This has opened up space in rural Maharashtra that the Sena believes it can occupy.
Sena’s calculations
In contrast, Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena (UBT) that still holds legacy and emotional capital in Mumbai, as the recent Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections showed, has not matched the Sena’s statewide blitz and has left the decision-making and strategising to its district leaders.
For Sena (UBT), Zilla Parishads are not existential in the current political scenario. Its strongest base remains urban, particularly Mumbai, where it retained 65 seats in the BMC. Even in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Sena (UBT) had outperformed Shinde’s party in seat count. However, in the Assembly, the Deputy CM holds the edge with 57 MLAs over Uddhav’s 20. This legislative edge is driving Shinde’s urgency to build a rural organisation to match his institutional strength.
Historically, the undivided Sena was an urban force, strongest in Mumbai, Thane, and parts of the Konkan and Marathwada regions. It was only in the 1990s, after consolidating its hold over the BMC, that party founder Bal Thackeray aggressively pushed rural expansion under the slogan “Gaav tithe shakha”, which means “there should be a Sena branch at every village of Maharashtra”.
The idea was simple that if the Sena had to be a serious state-level party, it could not remain confined to Mumbai’s municipal politics. Rural voters were critical not only for winning local bodies but also for Assembly and parliamentary power. Shinde’s current campaign mirrors that logic and at one rally, he echoed Bal Thackeray by saying, “Ghar tithe Shiv Sainik, gaav tithe shakha (a Shiv Sainik in every home, a Sena unit in every village)”.
For Shinde, the poll test on Saturday is not just about seats, with Sena leaders describing it as the “second phase” of the party’s rural expansion, this time under a new leadership.
Behind the Deputy CM’s rhetoric lies a clear calculation: legislative dominance has been secured, urban consolidation has begun, and rural expansion is the next frontier. For the party and the Deputy CM, the fight for the 731 Zilla Parishad seats in 12 districts is less about defeating rivals immediately and more about reshaping the party’s structural identity. It is about ensuring that when the next Lok Sabha and Assembly elections come around in 2029, in villages, the Sena name is associated primarily with his party.
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