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Looks like Shiv Sena is at a cross roads. This despite its decision to join the Fadnavis-led BJP government in Maharashtra on Friday. With BJP, a junior ally till the two decided to go it

alone in assembly polls, eating into its vote base, the sons-of-soil party had little option but to join the cabinet, or else there were chances of the rank and file splitting vertically,

admit insiders. The decision to join the government could cut both ways. The party could have the advantage of strutting around in the corridors of power after 15 years in the opposition; on

the flip side, there is the possibility of BJP setting the agenda, forcing Sena to play the second fiddle. For BJP, it's a gain. It would no more have to depend on Sharad Pawar-led

NCP. BJP leaders admit that its alternate plan to shore up numbers by luring legislators from other parties including Sena, was fraught with risks like tainting the party's image. “Many

party activists were against Sena joining the government, but the likelihood of BJP walking away with some of our legislators may have forced the leadership's hand,” said a Sena

leader, adding that BJP was eying their social and political base. “Our leaders want plum portfolios, but we may only get less important ones. Our workers too have high expectations, like

being appointed in state-run corporations, etc. But with BJP calling the shots, will their ambitions be fulfilled, will joining the government lead to frustration?” the Sena leader wondered.

He also said though the party had a good chance of appropriating the opposition space as the principal opposition party, that would have exposed chinks in its armour. “We were caught

between the devil and the deep sea. We chose the better option—power. Sena can no more function as an effective opposition,” said a Sena source.  “Sena is finding BJP steadily chipping away

at its traditional (Maharashtrian) vote base,” said a BJP/Sangh veteran, adding that the educated youth, middle class and upper castes were swayed by prime minister Narendra Modi. BJP won

significant number of votes in the Sena heartland of Dadar, and BJP's Vidya Thakur, shocked its veteran, Subhash Desai, in its stronghold of Goregaon. The increasing number of

non-Maharashtrians in Mumbai and its extended suburbs has also dented Sena's pre-eminence. “People are increasingly upwardly mobile. They want education, jobs and a better life. Sena

has little to offer them beyond identity politics,” said the BJP leader, adding that Sena-run BMC's performance had not exactly set Arabian Sea on fire. “Sena will have to forget its

agitational politics if it joins the government,” noted Surendra Jondhale, professor, department of civics and politics, University of Mumbai. Sena would also have to handle its differences

with BJP on the latter's support for a separate state of Vidarbha, he added. Jondhale also said the coalition could be an “uncomfortable” one though the two had a common political

ideology as the BJP would set the agenda. A BJP leader admitted that Sena's famed nuisance value on the streets of Mumbai where it holds sway due to its base in the lower strata of the

society, may also have prompted a reconciliation. “A man who goes barefoot because he cannot afford chappals is dangerous when he takes on the system because he has nothing to lose,” he

pointed out.