Going solo in local body polls will be based on strength, not emotions: Thackeray

MUMBAI: After Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray’s appeal to strengthen the party on the ground for the local body polls, Sena (UBT) leaders in a meeting on Friday requested Thackeray to minimise the undue intervention of appointed district co-ordinators and give more powers to district-level office bearers in organisational decisions. Thackeray also declared at the meeting that the decision to go solo in the polls would not be based on the emotions of party workers but on the ground reality of the party’s strength.

After addressing a public rally on Thursday, Thackeray on Friday held a meeting with district chiefs and district coordinators of the party across the state. MP Sanjay Raut, former MP Vinayak Raut, leader of the opposition in the council Ambadas Danve and group leader in the assembly Bhaskar Jadhav among others attended. Amid the ongoing controversy about the “threat to the Constitution”, Thackeray told office-bearers to organise a ‘Samvidhan Poojan’ and Bharat Mata procession on the eve of Republic Day. “Our party workers across the state will organise Samvidhan Poojans and Bharat Mata processions on January 25, the eve of the day India adopted the Constitution,” said Raut. “Uddhav Thackeray will perform a Samvidhan Poojan at Shiv Sena Bhavan tomorrow evening.”

In the meeting, while taking about the necessary measures to strengthen the party at the ground level, a party leader said, “If we are expecting local leaders to perform and strengthen the party organisation, we need to give them powers. Responsibility without power will not give results. So we need to minimise the undue intervention of district coordinators in the work of district level local office-bearers and need to give the latter more powers in organisational decisions so that they can take proper decisions and run the organisation effectively.”

Later, Uddhav Thackeray expressed his determination to fight against the BJP and ruling alliance irrespective of the result. “Success and defeat are part of politics and we cannot take a decision based on the current wave,” he said. “During the Shiv Sena’s bad times in the 1970s, then party leader and former mayor of Mumbai Hemchandra Gupte suggested that party founder Bal Thackeray change the policy of the party. But Balasaheb refused to go with the political wave of that time, and within a few years he ensured huge success for the Sena, which emerged as a major political party in Maharashtra. We should not forget this. So I am not going to give up and will continue to fight against the BJP and ruling alliance.”

Thackeray also clarified to office bearers that he would not take a decision on going solo in the local body polls based on the emotions of party workers but on merit. “Show me the strength of the party in your areas, then I will decide on going solo,” he said. “Decisions cannot be taken on emotions; we will have to think about our strength.”