Ekant Shinde Meeting: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has started the first national executive meeting of Shiv Sena. This comes days after the Election Commission directed it to recognize his faction as the “real Shiv Sena” and allot it the ‘bow and arrow’ election symbol.
According to sources, the meeting is currently going on in a hotel in Mumbai. Several MLAs, MPs and other Shiv Sena leaders, who have been working with Shinde ever since he parted ways with the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, are attending the meeting.
The party will likely choose Shinde as Shiv Sena chief, seizing all powers from former CM Uddhav Thackeray. “Some decisions like the appointment of a new executive committee can be expected,” sources said.
Shinde on Monday said that after the Election Commission’s decision on the original Shiv Sena, there would be no claim on any party’s property as “we are the inheritors of Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology and we have no greed”. He had told reporters, “I have no greed for Shiv Sena’s property or money. I am a person who has always given something to others.”
Those lured by wealth and money had made a wrong move in 2019, he said, an apparent reference to Uddhav Thackeray breaking the alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party after the assembly election results over sharing of chief ministerial tenure.