Shinde Faction Withdraw Claim on Shivaji Park, Avoid Showdown with Thackeray Faction

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Oct 10: In an apparent conciliatory move, the Eknath Shinde camp being in power decided to stay away from any conflict with the Shiv Sena action led by the former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in staging the customary Dussehra rally at the traditional Shivaji Park in Mumbai.

In a bid to avoid a potential showdown, the chief minister Eknath Shinde’s ruling Sena faction on Tuesday backed down from staking claim to hold the October 24 Dussehra rally at the iconic Shivaji Park, though the faction this year was better placed to claim right for the Shivaji Park venue than it was la year.

In the last year, both the factions had demanded permission from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for holding the Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park and the BMC was forced to refuse permission to both but finally the Bombay High Court had granted the Thackeray faction the right to hold the rally at Shivaji on grounds of that he as the son of the Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray was leading the rally at the venue till 2021 since the death of his father in 2012.

The Shinde faction, however, had an additional ground to stake its claim for the venue as it had been approved as the “real” Sena by the Election Commission of India on the strength of holding the majority of the members of the state Assembly.

The faction, however, still decided to withdraw its stake. The faction on Tuesday withdrew its application submitted to the BMC seeking permission to hold the Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park paving the way for Uddhav Thackeray’s rival Sena (UBT) to hold its rally there on the Dussehra day.

While the Shinde faction hailed the Chief Minister’s “magnanimity” in taking a step back and defusing a potential flashpoint, the Uddhav Thackeray camp taunted its rival by urging them to hold their Dussehra rally at the party office of Mr. Shinde’s ally – the BJP.

Shinde camp MLA Sada Sarvankar, who withdrew the application, later said in a post on X that the ruling party was taking the step on Mr Shinde’s urging and that it was a “conciliatory move” to ensure that the Hindu festival was celebrated with enthusiasm. “Dussehra is an important festival of Hindus! Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray had continuously given his fiery Hindutva addresses from Shivtirth [as Shivaji Park is known to Sena cadre] for the last 50 years. So, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde took a conciliatory stance by announcing that the Dussehra gathering would be held in the spirit of avoiding disputes between each other during Hindu festivals.”

Mr Shinde, speaking to reporters said his faction’s rally was likely to take place at the Azad Maidan or some other place as work on the Bullet Train project was presently on at the Bandra-Kurla Complex grounds which was the venue for the Dussehra rally last year following the split in the Sena.

Thackeray camp leader Anil Parab said staging the Dussehra rally was the right of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena (UBT). “We were ready to go to court if the BMC did not grant us permission. We had presented our case strongly before the civic body, telling them that since the founding of the party in 1966, the Dussehra rally had been held at Shivaji Park till Balasaheb’s death in 2012. After that, this tradition has been continued by his son Uddhav Thackeray till 2022,” said Mr Parab.

While the annual Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park has always been inextricably associated with the Thackeray family, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s intra-party revolt which split the Sena in June last year, has now led to the competing factions squabbling over the Sena’s hallowed venue.

In October 2022, the State witnessed a similar political face-off between the two factions over holding the Dussehra Rally at Shivaji Park. After much drama, which saw the BMC not give permission to either the Thackeray or Shinde camps, Mr Thackeray was finally granted the right to the Shivaji Park venue by the Bombay High Court.

This time, the Shinde faction had claimed the right to hold the Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park on grounds that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had already awarded the party name and symbol to Mr Shinde’s group, making them the ‘real’ Shiv Sena, as per the Shinde camp leaders.

Mr Shinde said he withdrew his petition as he did not want any row on the auspicious occasion of Dussehra.

Shinde also appealed to his party workers not to clash with the rival faction led by Uddhav Thackeray as former chief minister gets people’s sympathy, they added.

Last year on the occasion of the Dussehra, Shiv Sena (Thackeray) mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ had claimed that the Shinde camp had spent Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore on the Dussehra rally held at the BKC as nearly 2,000 buses were booked to ferry supporters and over two lakh people who attended the event were given food. “The rally at the BKC was one of the BJP-backed events. The amount spent must have been the same used for buying a couple of MLAs.

The event was like a fashion show and a beauty pageant,” it said.