Bitter rivals, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena-UBT, have come together to form a front in Barshi taluka of Maharashtra’s Solapur district along with two Nationalist Congress Party factions ahead of the local polls.
Elections to 12 Zilla Parishads (ZPs) and 125 Panchayat Samitis will be held on February 7.
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06 Feb 2026
The rival Shiv Sena factions, which often target each other, have forged an alliance to form a front at the taluka level in Barshi.
Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday campaigned for the front comprising his party, Sena-UBT, NCP and Sharad Pawar-led NCP-SP. He addressed a rally at Vairag in Barshi taluka, where Sena-UBT MLA Dilip Sopal was also present.
Speaking in a lighter vein, Shinde said Sopal, a multiple-term MLA, took the wrong bus, or else he would have been in the cabinet. He was alluding to Sopal not aligning with him but with the rival Sena-UBT in the 2024 state assembly polls.
A Shiv Sena-UBT leader from Solapur, requesting anonymity, said the alliance between his party and three others is limited to the local level against the BJP.
“This alliance is restricted to Barshi taluka, which comprises 238 villages. It is for ZP and panchayat samiti polls…,” he told PTI on Thursday.
The Shiv Sena-UBT has, on several occasions, said it will not have any truck with the Shiv Sena or the NCP.
The party leadership was also upset over the Maharashtra Navnirman Senajoining hands with the Shiv Sena in the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) in Thane district.
The MNS had then defended the move, saying the alliance was done at the local level and without the approval of the party leadership.
