Uddhav, Shinde factions of Shiv Sena to mark foundation day in separate events

One year after Shiv Sena split into two — one headed by Eknath Shinde and the other by Uddhav Thackeray — the two factions have announced that they will celebrate the party’s foundation day separately on June 19.

The day is likely to witness a verbal duel as both factions are trying to claim the mantle of the `true inheritor’ of party founder late Bal Thackeray’s legacy ahead of the next year’s Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections as well as the long-due civic polls in Mumbai.

The Shiv Sena party of Maharashtra saw a split last year as Eknath Shinde and 39 other party MLAs broke away and rebelled against the then-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The Shinde-led faction later toppled the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government of the Sena, NCP and Congress.

Shinde then became chief minister with the BJP’s support and the Election Commission of India subsequently granted his faction the original party name and `bow and arrow’ symbol while the Thackeray group was named Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).

The Shinde-led faction will hold its event at the NESCO ground in Goregaon in northwest Mumbai on Monday while the Thackeray-led faction will celebrate the foundation day in Shanmukhanand Hall at Sion in central Mumbai.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut has reiterated that the Thackeray-led group is the real Shiv Sena.

Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde, the son of chief minister Eknath Shinde, said party workers from across the state will gather for the event.

Sena (UBT) mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ said that on Sunday, Uddhav Thackeray will speak at a party conclave in Worli in south-central Mumbai, the Assembly seat of his son and former minister Aaditya Thackeray.

Bal Thackeray, a political cartoonist, founded the Shiv Sena on June 19, 1966, and made the pride of `Marathi manoos’ (Marathi speakers in Mumbai) the core plank of its politics.

As elections loom, to establish that their respective faction is the real Sena is an existential challenge for both Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde.

With inputs from PTI

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