A day after the Shiv Sena’s youth wing went up in arms against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Poonam Mahajan, Ms. Mahajan met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday to resolve the issue. Yuva Sena members had declared on Saturday that they would not campaign for Ms. Mahajan as she had not included a picture of their leader Aaditya Thackeray on her political banner.
The Sena chief went to Gandhinagar on Saturday to support BJP President Amit Shah, who filed his Lok Sabha nomination papers from the constituency. The pictures of the two of them, and other senior NDA leaders hugging each other raised eyebrows as the alliance partners had been bickering until a few months ago. Saturday’s visit sent a message to party workers that the animosity was over.
But there was a hiccup in Mumbai over the weekend, after a banner on the stage where Ms. Mahajan addressed a joint office bearers’ meeting featured the pictures of senior BJP and Sena leaders, but not Mr. Aaditya. Yuva Sena claimed the same had happened on some pamphlets too.
“We brought it to the notice of the authorities concerned, but got no response. Both parties have agreed upon a protocol where the picture of senior-most leaders will be displayed on all election material. From Shiv Sena, the protocol is to use pictures of Balasaheb, Uddhavji and Aadityaji. They should follow the protocol and not take us for granted,” a Yuva Sena functionary said.
“We will not campaign for [Ms. Mahajan] until she addresses the issue with the party high command and we get clear instructions,” Sena corporator Amey Ghole said.
However, Ms. Mahajan changed the posters to include Mr. Aaditya soon after.
On Sunday, she tweeted that she had gone to Mr. Thackeray’s residence Matoshree to seek his blessings ahead of the elections. “The affection between both families is assuring,” she tweeted. Ms. Mahajan did not respond to calls.
“The matter has been resolved. We will now campaign for her as per protocol,” Yuva Sena functionary Rahul Kanal said.