‘Shiv Sena and Balasaheb cannot be separated’; party writes to EC

Mumbai: The 2-hour-long national executive meeting of the Shiv Sena on Saturday drove home the Thackeray family’s resolve to stake their claim on the party. The emergency meeting at Sena Bhavan resolved to stop the rebels from using the name of the party or Balasaheb Thackeray in any formal way. The proposal was moved by Sena parliamentarian Arvind Sawant who said, “Shiv Sena and Balasaheb are two sides of the same coin and cannot be separated. Therefore, nobody except the party (Sena) can use Shiv Sena and Balasaheb Thackeray.”

“No other political party or group can stake claim to these names,” said MP Anil Desai, adding that the party has written to the Election Commission of India on this issue.

The Shiv Sena national executive meeting is usually held every five years and the next was to be held in 2023, but on Saturday, party president Uddhav Thackeray called for an emergency meeting following Eknath Shinde’s full-blown revolt. The extent to which Shinde has damaged the party was evident from the depleted numbers that attended Saturday’s meeting. The last executive meet in 2018 was attended by 282 functionaries. On Saturday, there were only 245 people present.

At the meeting those gathered reiterated faith in the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray, authorising him to take necessary action against the “traitors”. The Shiv Sena also passed a resolution reconfirming its ideology as a son-of-the-soil (Marathi Manoos) party as well as its allegiance to Hindutva. “Shiv Sena will continue to uphold the ideals of Balasaheb Thackeray and the party has not diluted or compromised with Hindutva in any way,” said party spokesman Sanjay Raut after the meeting.

Thackeray, who was detected as Covid positive last week, had planned to participate in this meeting virtually, but ended up attending it. As he stood to speak, the national executive members, ranging from leaders to deputy leaders, secretaries and district chiefs, heard him in rapt attention. Unlike the previous addresses to the public or to the district-level functionaries, Thackeray struck a far more aggressive note speaking to his party’s core leadership team. “The leaders who have left the Shiv Sena are now on their own and should not seek votes either in the name of the Shiv Sena or Balasaheb Thackeray,” said Raut quoting Uddhav and then then countered his own statement of the previous day to say that the Maha Vikas Aghadi was and will stay united.”

Some of resolutions were the direct outcome demands by Sena rebels to name their breakaway faction in the name of Balasaheb Thackeray. MLA and former minister Deepak Kesarkar had said in Guwahati that there was a demand to name their group Shiv Sena-Balasaheb. Kesarkar, who addressed a virtual press conference on Saturday said he and the others with Shinde had not quit Sena but they intended to form a separate group as they had a two-thirds majority of the MLAs with them. “We are still with the Shiv Sena and continue to be members of the party,” said Kesarkar, who represents Sawantwadi in Sindhudurg district.

Just as the Sena has been holding its fire, the rebels too have not attacked Uddhav Thackeray personally. “Recognition should be given to our faction, if it isn’t given, we will go to court and prove our existence and numbers. We have the numbers, but we respect CM Uddhav Thackeray, we won’t speak out against him. We must follow the path on which we fought Assembly elections,” said Kesarkar.

After hearing about the Sena resolutions passed by the national executive, Kesarkar said, “We have not sought votes in the name of anybody; the elections are about two and half years away. There is a demand in our group that the name of our outfit should be Shiv Sena - Balasaheb, but now they are saying we cannot use ‘Balasaheb’ so we will only use Shiv Sena,” he said.