Shiv Sena is a right-wing Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by Bal Thackeray. 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.
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. 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. It ran a strong movement against South Indian people who were living in Bombay, alleging they did not respect Marathi people and their culture.
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. But 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 former rivals, the Indian National Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, signalling a significant departure