Uddhav Thackeray, Eknath Shinde strike hard at each other at Dussehra mega-rallies
For the first time ever, there were two grand Dussehra rallies organised by Shiv Sena leaders in Mumbai. Uddhav Thackeray, son of founder Balasaheb Thackeray, and his supporters held their rally at Shivaji Park, the venue since the inception of the party 56 years ago. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde organised his at the bigger ground at Bandra-Kurla Complex.
The former gave a one-hour-long speech while the latter’s was one-and-a-half hours long.
What both are fighting for is who would become the real bearer of Balasaheb Thackeray’s legacy as Shiv Sena chief. Both claim to represent the real Shiv Sena, after the recent split engineered by Shinde with active help from BJP. While the ball is now in the Election Commission of India’s court, as far as the issue of which faction gets to use the bow-and-arrow election symbol is concerned, both Thackeray and Shinde left no stone unturned to strike hard at each other through fiery speeches addressed to huge crowds of supporters.
The Shinde rally too had its fair share of Thackerays, the ones who do not see eye to eye with Uddhav and his son Aaditya—Jaidev, younger son of Balasaheb, Nihar, son of the patriarch’s deceased eldest son, Bindumadhav and Jaidev’s estranged wife, Smita Thackeray.
While Shinde staunchly defended his rebellion that brought down the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government last June, saying his act was not a “gaddari” (betrayal) but a “gadar’ (revolt), the latter labelled Shinde and his supporters as “traitors” and their act a “treachery”, the result of the “lust for power”.
While Shinde said his predecessor chief minister “betrayed” the people of Maharashtra by joining hands with the Congress and NCP to form the MVA government in 2019, Thackeray said he did what he did to teach the BJP a lesson for reneging on its promise, which was to “share the chief minister’s post for two-and-a-half years”.
Thackeray took a Bahubali jibe at Shinde, comparing him to the character of Katappa in the film: “… when I was admitted to the hospital, the people whom I gave the responsibility (of the state) became Katappa and betrayed us,” he said. Shinde matched fire with fire, saying though some call him Katappa the betrayer, even Katappa had self-respect and did not have a double standard like Uddhav.
Thackeray also accused BJP of raising the Hindutva issue to divert attention from burning issues like poverty, unemployment and inflation, and reminded them that RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale had shown them the mirror when he made the statement on the twin challenges of income inequality and unemployment.
Going by their Dussehra speeches, it is evident that the battle royale between Thackeray and Shinde is only going to become fiercer in the days and months to come, and will surely last at least till the Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024.
