With the local bodies polls in Maharashtra including in the financial capital of Mumbai expected post-monsoon, the battle of supremacy among the two factions of Shiv Sena is getting bigger.
It's not limited to Uddhav Thackeray vs Eknath Shinde but their sons - Aaditya Thackeray vs Dr Shrikant Shinde - who are preparing the ground for the electoral fight.
In the run-up to the polls to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Shiv Sena (UBT) are leaving no stones unturned to reach out to people.
The Balasaheb Thackeray-founded Shiv Sena had been controlling the BMC - the richest and one of the biggest civic bodies of India - for a quarter of a century.
The five-year term of the BMC’s 227-member general body - elected in 2017 ended on March 7, 2022.
The elections are due for more than a year, however, in between the Shiv Sena vertically split in June 2022.
The Shinde-led Shiv Sena will contest the polls in alliance with the BJP, while as far as the Maha Vikas Aghadi partners are concerned, the Thackeray-Shiv Sena (UBT) and Shared Pawar-led NCP have in principle agreed to contest together, however, the Congress is yet to clarify on its stance.
While after the split, Aaditya (32), the Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA from Worli, who is the Yuva Sena President and former state Tourism, Environment and Protocol Minister had extensively travelled in Mumbai and the larger Mumbai metropolitan region, Thackeray himself had chaired several meetings with senior leaders in Shiv Sena Bhavan at Dadar and Matoshree in Mumbai. After the split, Aaditya had toured the state and addressed several rallies and meetings as part of the Shiv Samvad Yatra, an outreach programme.
This month, Dr Shrikant (36), who is a Shiv Sena MP from Kalyan in the neighbouring Thane district, has stepped in and has started meeting people and officials.
He also met Mumbai’s Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Dr Iqbal Singh Chahal and discussed several important issues ahead of the onset of the southwest monsoon. The junior Shinde had Rajnish Kumar Goyal, Mumbai Divisional Railway Manager of Central Railway, part of the lifeline of Mumbai.
An orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Shrikant, has launched Shakha Sampark Abhiyan, an outreach programme to strengthen Shinde’s base in Mumbai.
The Shinde faction is trying to reopen in ex-corporators and create a dent in the base of the Thackerays.
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