The big Sena versus Sena battle on the occasion of Dussehra today started off with a stern warning from former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. “Ravan will burn,” Mr Thackeray told the Eknath Shinde camp, pointing to the huge crowds at Mumbai’s Shivai Park – the traditional venue for the party’s Dussehra celebration. Mr Shinde is holding a parallel rally at the MMRDA grounds, a short way off from Mr Thackeray’s home, Matoshree.
The two factions of Sena — eye-ball to eyeball since the vertical split in June — are holding what has been billed as a huge show of strength.
For the first time since the Shiv Sena’s inception 56 years ago, two Dussehra rallies are being held in Mumbai by the rival factions.
“What will happen to Shiv Sena? Seeing the crowd here, the question now is — what will happen to the traitors? All have gathered together. Like every year, this time too Ravana will burn. But this time Ravana is different,” he told the crowd at Shivaji Park.
The BJP, Mr Thackeray insisted, had betrayed the Sena and this was why the alliance broke. “I swear by my parents that there was talk of half-term. Then Amit Shah said nothing of the sort was decided,” Mr Thackeray said.
The BJP, he added, is now in the situation they tried to avoid by making Eknath Shinde the Chief Minister. “Why didn’t you do it earlier?” he said.
The majority of Mr Thackeray’s wrath was reserved for Mr Shinde, who, he said, had betrayed the party.
“How much should a man’s greed be? He was given the Chief Minister’s post. Now he wants the party too,” he said, accusing the new Chief Minister of “stealing” his father.
Mr Shinde, who is fighting to claim the legacy of Balasaheb Thackeray – Uddhav Thackeray’s father and the founder of Shiv Sena – had rubbed in the point quoting couplets from renowned poet Harivanshrai Bachchan.
“My son will not be my heir by being my son; whoever is my heir will be my son – Harivanshrai Bachchan,” the Maharashtra Chief Minister tweeted, implying that legacy of a man need not necessarily be passed onto his son.
