Uddhav Thackeray would soon undertake a Maharashtra-wide tour, in what was being called as an attempt to resurrect the saffron party in the state. The Shiv Sena president would start a series of public rallies and meetings from Thane, rebel leader and Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde’s bastion.
The Shiv Sena chief’s first public rally would be held at Tembhi Naka in Thane city, as part of the proposed Maha Prabodhan Yatra, which is supposedly the first leg of Shiv Sena’s campaigning for the upcoming local bodies’ elections.
The venue of the first of Thackeray’s public addresses gained significance as Tembhi Naka was where Shinde’s mentor, the late ‘Dharmaveer’ Anand Dighe, worked for the expansion of Shiv Sena.
Thane city is a pocket borough of Shinde-led Shiv Sena, who staged a mutiny within Shiv Sena, and with the help of Bharatiya Janata Party dislodged Thackeray as the chief minister who was at the helm of the coalition government of Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Thackeray’s tour is expected to begin in September after the Ganpati festivities wind down.
Over the past two months, since he resigned, Thackeray was said to have been holding a series of meetings at his home Matoshree in Bandra, and at Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar. According to inside sources, party headquarters was where he was assessing each district.
With the local bodies polls looming ahead, the Shiv Sena president reportedly did not want to waste any time, and wanted to move fast to keep the party ahead of its political rivals.
The proposed Maha Prabodhan Yatra would be concluded at Bindu Chowk in Kolhapur. This venue also held importance, as it was selected because Shiv Sena Kolhapur district chief Sanjay Pawar lost the Rajya Sabha election to BJP nominee Dhananjay Mahadik who hails from the same district; this was also when the signs of rebellion within Shiv Sena came to the fore.
As of now, Yuva Sena president Aaditya Thackeray was on a Shiv Samvad Yatra—a state-wide outreach programme involving meetings and road shows in all regions of the state, especially the Konkan, western Maharashtra, north Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha.
The junior Thackeray focussed on the districts and constituencies of the MPs and MLAs that had switched to the Shinde camp.