One of the longest-running alliances in the history of Indian democracy came to an end this morning. Shiv Sena, which has been a steadfast ally of the ruling BJP at the Centre for more than three decades, decided to break away from the BJP-led NDA.

Shiv Sena also announced that it would contest next year’s general elections as well as the Maharashtra Assembly polls on its own without allying with the BJP. Decision to break away from the NDA was taken at the Sena’s national executive committee meeting held this morning at Mumbai. The meeting passed a resolution to contest next year’s Assembly polls in the State on its own without allying with other parties.

Aditya Thakre, son of Sena’s president Udhav Thakre, was also elected as a member of the party’s national executive committee at today’s meeting. The Sena, which supports the ruling BJP at the Centre, stopped short of saying whether it would withdraw support to the NDA Government.

Political observers point out that it would be too early to dub this as a ‘setback’ to the BJP as this might be a strategy adopted by the Sena to get leverage in negotiating with the BJP to get more seats in coming polls.