Even as the sabre-rattling between rival Shiv Sena factions led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray intensified a day after their Dasara rallies, their respective allies spewed vitriol on each other, with the Congress slamming Mr. Shinde for “reading the Bharatiya Janata Party’s script” at his address, and the BJP claiming that the unprecedented crowds at Mr. Shinde’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) rally conclusively proved that the ‘real’ Shiv Sena was the one led by the CM and not Uddhav Thackeray.
Speaking in Pune, BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis remarked that despite the size of the BKC grounds being twice the size of Dadar’s Shivaji Park (where Mr. Thackeray held his rally), the gargantuan crowds which came from Mumbai city, the surrounding Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and other parts of Maharashtra resoundingly showed that the “true” Sena was the one led by Mr. Shinde.
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“The Shiv Sena cadre have definitively shown that the ‘real’ Sena is one that is led by CM Eknath Shinde. I congratulate the CM… It is pointless to comment on Uddhav Thackeray’s speech as his address contained nothing but noise. He has levelled the same accusations so many times that we are tired of hearing it. He really ought to change his script writer,” Mr. Fadnavis said, responding to Mr. Thackeray’s criticism of him and the accusation of the BJP having allegedly ‘stabbed’ the Shiv Sena during the latter’s address.
In a riposte, the Thackeray camp and their Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies — the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — lashed out at Mr. Shinde’s speech and the BJP, with Sena MP Arvind Sawant remarking that Mr. Shinde’s speech was written by Mr. Fadnavis.
The Uddhav camp mocked the CM for the number of the times Mr. Shinde had to look at his speech and read it out. The Uddhav camp also claimed their own rally at Shivaji Park “was the biggest in the history” of the Shiv Sena since its inception in 1966.
“We have surpassed our own previous records…Shivaji Park was spilling over with loyal Shiv Sainiks. It proved just how strong the Sena is under Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership,” Mr. Sawant, an Uddhav loyalist, said.
Commenting on the contrast between the two speeches, Mr. Sawant said that the CM had to keep reading from “a script fed to him by the BJP.”
“In stark contrast, everyone in Shivaji Park was eagerly listening to Uddhav Thackeray’s address with rapt attention. While in the BKC, people were seen slithering from behind, leaving the venue before Mr. Shinde’s speech was over,” Mr. Sawant claimed.
Accusing the Shinde camp of having packed their audience by contract and filling the BKC with paid supporters, he demanded the BJP leadership and the Shinde camp account for the allegedly “illicit cash transactions” that were made in order to pack Mr. Shinde’s rally.
“I think the CM ought to come clear on how much cash his faction paid the State Transport Corporation to commandeer his paid ‘supporters’…furthermore, from where did the money for food for these people ‘on hire’ come from?” Mr. Sawant said.
Echoing Mr. Sawant, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole alleged that the Eknath Shinde faction had arranged for a paid crowd from different parts of the State at the BKC venue but that these people left without hearing Mr. Shinde’s speech.
“The people of the State finally saw for themselves that the Chief Minister is a puppet of the BJP. Furthermore, Mr. Shinde cannot hide his sin of his own betrayal [revolt within the Sena] by blaming the Congress,” Mr. Patole said.
The MPCC chief said that the tripartite MVA government had been formed under Mr. Thackeray’s leadership for the benefit of the people of Maharashtra in a bid “to keep the communal BJP out of power”.
“Eknath Shinde, along with the 40 rebel MLAs, were also until recently part of the MVA. If the Congress’s support was so unwanted, then why didn’t they exit the MVA in 2019 itself? They talk about Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology, but the same Bal Thackeray had supported Congress candidates Pratibhatai Patil and Pranab Mukherjee for the post of President [of India]. Doesn’t Mr. Shinde know this?” Mr. Patole said, accusing the CM of “bowing before the BJP for his own political ambitions”.
