BSS wants to take over Sena, but where are the shakhas?

Mumbai: In over six months since the coup, the split and launch of an independent faction named Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena (BSS), chief minister Eknath Shinde’s party, ostensibly formed in the image of the founder of Shiv Sena, Bal Thackeray, is yet to achieve the core that fuelled the old party – the Sena shakhas, a much coveted spot for emerging leaders.

Even as Mumbai and its satellite towns are inching towards the civic polls, BSS is yet to set up this crucial network. While party insiders insist that the “process of setting up the local offices is on” the plan is yet to kick off with gusto. For one, BSS does not have a headquarter yet and the party mainly functions from a government bungalow on Madame Cama Road, near Mantralaya and two other bungalows -- Agradoot and Nandanvan – allotted to Shinde by the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) when it was in power and he was the urban development minister.

BSS has a committee of six leaders headed by MP Gajanan Kirtikar to oversee the party’s operations in Mumbai, and most crucially, plan the civic polls. He said, while vibhagpramukhs have been appointed, “in the case of shakha pramukhs, 30 per cent are yet to be appointed”.

“We are a new party – all meetings of district units are held in Nandanvan. We are now forming our units for labour, cooperation, railway and others. Our main office is yet to be ready,” said Kirtikar.

The party has marked a space in one building near G North ward office in central Mumbai as its headquarters. Contrary to Kirtikar’s claims, when HT visited the office, it was vacant. In fact, the office has not been fully set up yet. The second office in Madame Cama Road too wore a deserted look with barely 10 people in attendance. The party does not have a communications cell either – a Delhi-based consultant gave a presentation recently but the media cell is yet to take shape.

While the party’s spokesperson, Sheetal Mhatre, a former corporator, said that the “shakhas would be set up soon as 90 per cent of the appointments are done”, Sada Sarvankar, MLA from Mahim, pointed out that four shakhas exist in Mahim and Dadar, “and plans are on to set up two more”. He however, could not provide the address of a single unit. “Even the Shiv Sena could not set up all the shakhas in a year. We are a young party,” he defended.

The party’s south Mumbai vibhag pramukh and an old Sena hand, who switched sides in June, Dilip Naik, however spoke with candour: “We don’t have a single shakha but are supposed to have 15. I am using my personal office to run the vibhag. We have to rent a place but people are reluctant to offer any. We have to build our own space soon.” Likewise, BSS shakha pramukh Umesh Mane said, “My shakha is in Mumbadevi, but we operate from a maidan. We put out chairs in the Hanuman mandir patangan in BIT Chawl, fix a banner of our CM and try to solve people’s problems. We are looking for space.”

Harking back to the genesis of Sena’s nerve centre, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant said, “The shakha is the soul of the party – family disputes, children’s admissions in schools and colleges are resolved here. People from across the city came to us – that is how we grew. In those days, Mumbai had 178 wards and we had set up 178 shakhas in just one-and-a-half months since the party was formed. The Shinde group does not have a single shakha.

They are unsure about their future and have no mass base.” His colleague, Vinayak Raut, added that “only some saleable people” were being lured by the opposing faction. “We have shakhas in 225 of the 227 wards; only two have been captured by BSS. Without shakhas, their existence will be wiped out.”