Amid the raging tussle between the rival Shiv Sena factions over who would hold the party’s annual Dasara rally in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, the Opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), backing the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena faction, said that only a Dasara gathering presided by the Thackeray family could be said to be a ‘legitimate’ one.
Rebuking Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s rival Sena faction, NCP State President Jayant Patil on Sunday said that as the annual Dasara rally was a tradition begun by late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, the ‘real’ Dasara gathering in Dadar’s Shivaji Park could only be the one that was held by the Thackeray family.
“Balasaheb Thackeray started this tradition which has been carried on for the past several years by [Sena president] Uddhav Thackeray. So, only the Thackeray family has a right to hold it… This year’s rally will give a new direction to the Shiv Sainiks,” said Mr. Patil.
The Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress constituted the tripartite ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ coalition before Mr. Shinde’s intra-party rebellion plunged the Sena into turmoil and toppled the MVA Government helmed by Mr. Uddhav Thackeray.
Since then, the two factions have been embroiled in a bitter legal struggle for the control of the party, right from the iconic Shiv Sena bow and arrow symbol to the question of staging the Dasara rally to be held in October.
The rally has been inextricably linked with the Thackeray family, traditionally serving as a platform for some important announcement made on the part of the Sena chief.
Noted for Bal Thackeray’s fiery speeches in the past, his son Uddhav has the ‘custodian’ of this tradition since the Sena founder’s death in 2012.
However, after Mr. Shinde’s intra-party revolt that dramatically altered political equations, the rebel faction - which includes 40 of the 55 Sena MLAs and 12 of the 19 Sena Lok Sabha MPs – has been arguing that the Thackeray camp has lost its right to hold the Dasara rally as it had ‘forsaken’ Hindutva ideals.
Hitting out at Mr. Shinde and the rebel Sena MLAs, Uddhav Thackeray asserted that he would hold the Dasara rally irrespective of the consequences.
Meanwhile, former Sena Minister Ramdas Kadam, a member of the Shinde camp, said that Mr. Uddhav Thackeray had “no right to take Bal Thackeray’s name at Shivaji Park” given his alliance with the NCP.
“[Senior NCP leader] Ajit Pawar would have finished-off the Sena had Eknath Shinde not taken steps at the right time to come out of the MVA and ally with the BJP,” said Mr. Kadam.
