Mumbai: The two factions of the Shiv Sena marked the erstwhile united party’s 58th foundation day at separate events in Mumbai Wednesday, with both Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde motivating their respective cadres to gear up for the Maharashtra assembly elections later this year.
Thackeray framed the upcoming polls as a direct battle between himself and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while Chief Minister Eknath Shinde told his supporters that they needed to inform people more emphatically about the prime minister’s work over the past 10 years in order to do better in elections.
Thackeray reiterated that he would not join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and wondered how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could claim that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was an unnatural alliance and that his party’s Hindutva pitch had been compromised, when the BJP itself had formed an alliance with Janata Dal (United)’s Nitish Kumar and Telugu Desam Party’s Chandrababu Naidu at the Centre.
“Modi ji, I invite you to start a campaign for the assembly election in Maharashtra… It will be you versus me,” Thackeray said to a packed auditorium at Shanmukhananda in Sion.
“We got the votes of all patriots, people of all religions. They said we left Hindutva, because we went with the Congress. I did not leave Hindutva. If everyone voted for us to save the country and the Constitution, then people are with us. It shows the BJP is the one that left Hindutva,” the former chief minister remarked.
“In fact, the BJP has now taken the support of Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar to save their government. Do they support Hindutva? Look at their manifestos,” he added.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the Mahayuti’s drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections, Chief Minister Shinde appealed to people from Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and the Maratha community to not fall for the Opposition’s propaganda. He also asked his cadre to introspect.
“Our government has given 10 percent reservation to Marathas. We have worked for every caste community in the state. Opposition always only talks and never does anything. I want to appeal to the OBCs and Marathas — don’t fall for their propaganda,” Shinde said at the event at NSCI Dome in Worli.
He added, “They spread fear about the Constitution. We couldn’t counter that. But going forward, we have to counter their propaganda, and also introspect where we fell short in the Lok Sabha election.”
Shiv Sena was founded by Bal Thackeray on 19 June, 1966, in Mumbai. Since then, every year, the party has celebrated its foundation day. Since the split in 2022, however, the factions have celebrated it separately.
Thackeray’s challenge
Thackeray thanked his party workers for the success of MVA in the Lok Sabha polls, where the combination of Congress, Shiv Sena-UBT, and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) won 31 of the 48 seats in the state (Vishal Patil, who had contested Independently, extended his support to the Congress).
Of the three parties in the alliance, Sena-UBT, which had contested from the most number of seats, managed to win only nine.
Thackeray encouraged his party workers to work even harder for the assembly polls. “I want you to decide whether you want history to remember you as traitors or fighters. We have lost some of the seats we shouldn’t have, and it has hurt me personally, but I want to avenge it all during assembly elections. So, let’s fight back,” he said.
He also clarified that he was very much a part of MVA and the INDIA bloc, putting an end to the speculations of a reconciliation with the BJP. He assured his party workers that he would “never” ally with those who tried to finish off the Shiv Sena.
“My message to the BJP and Mindhe — try winning an election without using my original symbol and my father’s photo. I am proud that we did not use anyone else’s picture. We will never use another image, especially that of PM Modi. I challenge Modi to start preparations today, keeping this fake Shiv Sena away,” he added.
Thackeray often uses “Mindhe” to taunt CM Shinde — Marathi word ‘mindha’ means someone who is suppressed with obligations.
Targeting PM Modi and those questioning his “Hindutva”, he said, “You (BJP) call our alliance with Congress and NCP unnatural. I want to ask about your alliance at the Centre. The JD(U) and TDP have made big promises to the Muslims and other sections in their respective states of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. Is it all acceptable to BJP and Modi?” he said. “This government will fall. Elections may happen mid-term and then the INDIA bloc will form the government.”
Thackeray also slammed Shinde for the latter’s comment that “urban Naxals” and NGOs had spread “misinformation” about the Mahayuti alliance. “Breaking parties by misusing central agencies is Naxalism…terrorism,” Thackeray remarked.
‘Short-lived victory’
Shinde, on the other hand, targeted Thackeray and said that the Sena (UBT) had won only because of the Muslim vote bank of the Congress.
He referred to Sena bastions like Kalyan, Thane and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and said that his faction’s victory in these constituencies was a symbol of the party’s formidable presence and support base in the state.
“This victory of theirs is short-lived and this surge will go away on its own in the coming assembly elections,” Shinde said.
He also accused Thackeray of abandoning Hindutva.
“They are now even shying away from using the word ‘Hindu’ and Hindutva because they have to rely on Congress’s core vote bank. What is this compulsion? They have abandoned Balasaheb’s ideology. They don’t have the right to celebrate anything. They have been wiped off from Konkan,” he said.
The Shinde Sena won seven of the 15 seats that it contested in the Lok Sabha polls.
“The people have accepted us. Our importance is growing and you will see that in the upcoming assembly elections. We should now determine to strengthen our Shiv Sena, uphold its ideology and the thoughts of Balasaheb Thackeray, and defeat the Opposition. Our motto now should be… from Gram Sabha to Vidhan Sabha,” Shinde added.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)