India, Dec. 25 -- As Raj and Uddhav Thackeray announced their alliance ahead of the upcoming BMC polls, Shiv Sainiks who have been with the party since its early years felt that the Sena's long and bitter internal conflict had come full circle. After fissures became visible in the then-undivided Sena in the late 1990s (later culminating in Raj's exit and the formation of the MNS in 2006), few imagined that the Thackeray cousins would one day enter an alliance born out of necessity rather than ambition. While widely celebrated as a family reunion, this alliance is actually a desperate bid for political survival and relevance for both Uddhav's Sena and Raj's MNS. It marks the last viable political opening for Raj Thackeray to revive a shrin...