Amid raging war over Bal Thackeray legacy, rival Senas go all out for shows of strength

Posters of both factions of Shiv Sena that were put up ahead of the party's Foundation Day on June 19, in Mumbai, (Amit Chakravarty)

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Amid raging war over Bal Thackeray legacy, rival Senas go all out for shows of strength

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The battle of perceptions over who gets to inherit the legacy of late Balasaheb Thackeray and the party he had founded in 1966, is all set to be extended to the Shiv Sena Foundation Day celebrations – the second most important celebration in the Sena’s festive calendar after the annual Dussehra rally – with both factions, one led by Thackeray’s son Uddhav and the other by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, holding separate events today.

Clearly, although the Shiv Sena split in June 2022, and the Election Commission of India subsequently recognised the Shinde-led faction as the real ‘Shiv Sena’ — allotting it the right to use the undivided party’s ‘bow and arrow’ electoral symbol — the battle of perceptions is hardly over.

Must Read | Eknath Shinde, Uddhav Thackeray unleash poster war ahead of party’s foundation day

While CM Shinde’s Sena is organising the 57th Sena Foundation Day at the NESCO exhibition centre in Goregaon, the Uddhav-led Sena is holding its function at Shanmukhanand Hall in Sion. Shinde and Uddhav are also expected to breathe fire on each other while addressing their respective gatherings.

Ahead of the separate functions, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut reiterated that the Uddhav-led group was the “real Shiv Sena”, while the other event is being organised by “traitors”. This was countered by CM Shinde’s son and Sena MP Shrikant Shinde, who said: “Party workers from across the state will gather for the event we are hosting as the real Shiv Sena that is taking forward Bal Thackeray’s ideology.”

Read | Manisha Kayande joins Shinde-led Sena, second MLC from Uddhav camp to quit party

In this battle for political one-upmanship and show of might between Uddhav and Shinde, a poster war on the roads of Mumbai has already been unleashed in Mumbai, with both sides trying to portray themselves as the real heir of Bal Thackeray and his ideology, while making allegations and counter- allegations against each other.

While the Shinde Sena is displaying its ‘bow and arrow’ party symbol prominently, the Uddhav-led Shiv Sena (UBT) has on its hoardings the ‘flaming torch’, the newly allotted poll symbol for the faction.

The hoardings put up on Mumbai roads by the Shinde Sena have in their background pictures of Bal Thackeray, Shinde’s political mentor late Anand Dighe, Chhatrapati Shivaji and a map of Maharashtra, with the CM’s picture in the foreground. Their message: “Aamhi Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena. Asel amchi kayam saath. 365 divas, 24 taas (We are Balasaheb’s Shiv Sena. We pledge our support forever, 365 days, 24 hours).”

The Shiv Sena (UBT)’s posters, in contrast, have pictures of Bal Thackeray and Uddhav and his son Aaditya. The message underneath asserts: “Nishtavanancha kutumbhshohala; Shiv Sena parivar jaga vegla (This is the get together of die-hard loyalists. Shiv Sena parivar is different from the rest).”