A day after the Shiv Sena (UBT) announced to go solo in the local body polls in Maharashtra, party leader Sanjay Raut on Monday said no alliance can succeed if dialogue among its partners ceases.

To maintain communication among partners, "responsible leaders" need to be appointed, and the Congress, which is the largest constituent of the Opposition INDIA bloc, must take on this role, Sena UBT Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said.

He also said there was nothing wrong in contesting elections against coalition partners, but in such cases, no party should dub their former or potential future allies as "traitors".

Raut had announced on Sunday that the party will contest the local bodies elections solo, alleging that the latter's strength had diminished.

BJP MP Narayan Rane had slammed the decision. "Uddhav Thackeray once spoke with confidence, but now his strength has diminished. What will happen if they contest alone? The party no longer has the capability. In two and a half years, he has lost what was achieved under Balasaheb Thackeray in 46 years." Rane said.

The Rajya Sabha member on Sunday asserted his party wants to strengthen its base and has never called for dissolution of the opposition INDIA bloc or the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which include the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress, and Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP).

"The INDIA bloc has performed remarkably well in the country's politics during the Lok Sabha elections, and it must continue to thrive. As the largest party in the alliance, the Congress bears the greatest responsibility. Congress must assume this role," Raut said.

On Monday, Raut said, "It is the collective desire of all of us to progress further in the political landscape of this country. However, over the past few days, some of our alliance partners seem to have taken the stance that communication has broken down. No alliance can succeed if dialogue is severed."

He claimed the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance collapsed in 2019 because dialogue between the two ceased.

"Lack of proper communication and dialogue directly contributed to the alliance's breakup," he said.

"The MVA was formed for the assembly polls and INDIA bloc for the Lok Sabha elections. The local body elections are meant to empower party workers and strengthen the organisation at the grassroots level."

Raut clarified that the party was not breaking away from the MVA. "I or my party have never said that the INDIA bloc or the MVA should be dissolved," the Rajya Sabha member added.

Maharashtra minister and state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule claimed the INDIA bloc was disintegrating as it has no ideology and policy for the nation's development.

Bawankule said the INDIA bloc was broken and scattered, and in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena (UBT) was against the Congress.

"The INDIA bloc doesn't have any policy for the nation's development. They came together for power, and now, without power, all leaders of the alliance have scattered away. And in Maharashtra as well, you can see Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar are against the Congress because they don't have an ideology," he said.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) faced intense criticism from its own elected MLAs and cadre following the results of the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The alliance’s combined tally of 46 seats—including 20 from Shiv Sena (UBT), 16 from Congress, and 10 from NCP-SP—was lower than that of the Shinde Sena alone (57).

Shiv Sena (UBT) garnered just 9.96 per cent of the vote share, a drop from the 16.72 per cent it got in the Lok Sabha elections six months earlier.

“Until we contest alone, we won’t fully understand our strength. While there was a need for an alliance in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, our cadre suffered as they were unable to contest. Urban body elections offer us the chance to provide them with that opportunity. We must stand on our own feet. After the Assembly elections, several of our leaders expressed that if we had fought independently, we would have secured more than 20 seats, far beyond what we managed as part of the alliance,” said Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant from South Mumbai.

The state unit of the Congress was guarded in its response, acknowledging that while its party cadre shared similar sentiments, the announcement came as a surprise.

“Sanjay Raut is not the party president. We would have responded if Uddhav Thackeray had made this announcement. We also believe that such statements should not be made publicly and should instead be discussed first among the senior leadership,” said Mumbai Congress chief and Lok Sabha MP Varsha Gaikwad.

Gaikwad also noted that Congress workers felt going solo in local body elections might benefit the party. “Our workers feel the same, but that doesn’t mean we have made a decision to contest independently. The party leadership will take the final call,” she added.

Another ally, NCP-SP, stated that its state leadership does not interfere in decisions regarding civic body elections, leaving it to its district committees.

“We gather feedback from the ground and allow local leaders to make the decisions,” said NCP-SP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase. He also pointed out that during both UPA-1 and UPA-2, Congress and NCP had contested local body elections separately in various parts of Maharashtra.

Elections to municipal corporations in Maharashtra’s major cities have been delayed for the past two years with state-appointed administrators overseeing their operations in the interim.

BJP's Narayan Rane further hit out at Sena (UBT) MP Raut over his allegation that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was protecting the main accused in the Santosh Deshmukh murder case and the state government was safeguarding the mafia.

He said, "When the Shiv Sena was in power, who was Raut protecting? Which mafia did he meet? What good deed landed him in prison? He should explain this first. The Shiv Sena (UBT) lacks credible voices, which is why Raut makes such statements."

The brutal murder of Santosh Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed district, on December 9 has triggered a slugfest between the ruling and opposition parties as one of the persons held in a related extortion case is a close associate of state minister Dhananjay Munde.

The incident has led to widespread protests in the state and also given rise to fears of a caste conflict since Deshmukh was a Maratha and some of those held hail from the Vanjari community.