NEW DELHI, June 17: In the battle of supremacy between the two rival factions, the Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray factions of the Shiv Sena are gearing up to celebrate on June 19 the foundation day of the party founded in 1966 by cartoonist turned politician Bal Thackeray who championed the cause of the sons of the soil.
The two factions would be organising the foundation day celebrations separately with events at two separate venues in Mumbai, both of which are likely to be marked by verbal duels to prove which is real inheritor of the mantle of founder late Bal Thackeray.
It will be the first foundation day celebrations for the two factions since the Shiv Sena split on June 30 last year after the rebellion of Shinde against then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the party name and ‘bow and arrow’ symbol was allotted by the Election Commission of India later to the former. The Thackeray faction was christened Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).
While the Shinde-led Shiv Sena will organise its event at NESCO ground in Goregaon in northwest Mumbai, the Shiv Sena (UBT) will hold its event in Shanmukhanand Hall at Sion in central Mumbai. Both sides stake claim to be the real Sena.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut asserted the Uddhav Thackeray-led group was the real Shiv Sena. Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde, who is also the son of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, said party workers from across the state will gather at the foundation day event.
Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ said Thackeray will also address his supporters in Worli, which is the Assembly seat of his son and former state environment minister Aaditya Thackeray.
Eknath Shinde’s rebellion last year brought down the Uddhav Thackeray government, after which the former became chief minister with the support of the BJP. The Uddhav faction is part of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi also including the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party.
But the friction within the MVA has continued between the Shiv Sena and Congress continued over the issue of Savarkar which was renewed this week over the Congress government in Karnataka deciding to drop a chapter on Savarkar from the school textbooks.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) criticized the Congress government in Karnataka for removing the chapter while the BJP sought Uddhav Thackeray’s stand on the issue. Thackeray’s spokesperson condemned the move, stating that Savarkar was an idol for the party. State Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe said the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have joined hands on a common minimum programme and to oppose the BJP.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Friday came down heavily on the Congress government in Karnataka for removing a chapter on Savarkar. Manisha Kayande, spokesperson for Thackeray faction, said though the party was in alliance with the Congress they have not given up their ideology.
Meanwhile, the Thackeray faction MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Saturday came down heavily on the makers of ‘Adipurush’ for allegedly using “pedestrian dialogues” in the film. Ms Chaturvedi demanded an apology from the film’s makers and said the dialogues were disrespectful to the characters of the Hindu epic Ramayana.
“The dialogue writer of ‘Adipurush’ @manojmuntashir, as well as the director, should apologise to the nation for the pedestrian dialogues written for the movie, especially for Lord Hanuman,” Ms Chaturvedi tweeted. “It hurts every Indian’s sensibilities to see the kind of language being attributed to our revered gods in the name of entertainment. You make a movie on Maryada Purushottam Ram and cross all boundaries of Maryada for quick box office success is unacceptable,” she added.
The mythological action film opened on Friday to a mixed reception. Some fans even reserved seats in honour of Lord Hanuman, a revered figure in the Ramayana. There were also reports of a man being beaten up in Hyderabad for criticising the film.
The makers of the film, reportedly made on a budget of ₹ 500 crore, launched a massive promotional campaign ahead of its release. At the trailer launch, the director, Om Raut, announced that a seat would be reserved for Lord Hanuman in every screening.
Hours after the film’s release, however, fans took to social media to criticise its substandard visual effects and juvenile dialogues. The criticism spilled outside social media on Friday when Hindu Sena filed a petition in the Delhi High Court against the film. The petition seeks to prevent the film from being certified for public exhibition. The petition also claimed that the film’s depiction of religious figures was inaccurate and inappropriate, and that this would hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community.