New Delhi: Former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray emerged a clear winner in terms of political messaging against his successor Eknath Shinde in round one of the show of strength organised by the two warring factions of the Shiv Sena on Dusshera.
While Uddhav Thackeray addressed a Dusshera rally at Shivaji Park on Wednesday (October 5), Shinde held a parallel public meeting about six km away at the MMRDA ground in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Bandra.
The Shivaji Park in Dadar has been a venue associated with the Shiv Sena since its inception in 1966.
The turnout was significant in both events. While the BKC was high on optics, the Shivaji Park one had huge emotional content.
The Shinde faction tried to turn the event into a contest to claim Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray's legacy by roping in estranged family members of the late leader.
On the other hand, Uddhav Thackeray called Shinde a traitor and someone who backstabbed him even as he attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for going against the coalition dharma by reneging on its promise of power-sharing after the assembly elections in 2019.
A tussle between the two factions over the Shiv Sena poll symbol, bow and arrow, has already reached the doorsteps of the Election Commission of India (ECI), which is expected to take a decision on the matter soon.
The by-election to the Andheri East assembly constituency in Mumbai is scheduled to be held on November 3. The by-poll was necessitated due to the death of Shiv Sena legislator Ramesh Latke in May this year. While the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has fielded Latke’s wife Rutuja, the BJP is fielding former Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) corporator Murji Patel. The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are likely to back Rutuja.
Though the Shinde group is hopeful of getting the symbol, the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction is apprehensive that the ECI might freeze it for the time being.
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In both cases, the Uddhav group will be at the receiving end as it will have to contest the elections on a new symbol. A symbol has an emotional appeal and in some parts of the country, voters, especially the illiterate ones, associate themselves mainly with symbols of political parties rather than candidates.
The by-election is billed to be the semi-final with the upcoming BMC polls being the finals that will eventually decide the real claimants of the Shiv Sena as well as the true heirs of Bal Thackeray's legacy.
According to some estimates, over 2.5 lakh people attended the Shivaji Park rally. Though the Shinde group claimed that over three lakh people attended its rally, media reports suggested that about 50% of the crowd had left by the time the chief minister started reading his speech.
On the other hand, similar videos of people leaving Shivaji Park ground in the midst of Thackeray's speech went viral on social media.
According to police figures, two lakh people attended Shinde's rally as compared to one lakh at Uddhav Thackeray's event.
It is also said that the Shinde faction had arranged food for over three lakh people and hired over 3000 buses and 4000 cabs to ferry people from different parts of Maharashtra.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led group claimed that Shinde's camp must have spent between Rs 50 crore and Rs 100 crore on its event which was fully backed by the BJP. On the other hand, it said the massive crowd that thronged Shivaji Park had come on its own and without any allurements to show their love and support for the true heir of the late Bal Thackeray.
With round one over, all eyes are now on the November 3 by-election.
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