Thackeray urges district unit chiefs to convert sympathy wave into votes, explain ‘real meaning’ of SC verdict

Mumbai: Citing the example of the Congress victory in Karnataka, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday urged his district unit chiefs to reach out to the people and ensure that the current mood of sympathy towards the party was converted into votes in the coming elections. He also launched ‘Mission Chavadi’ (a kind of small public meeting in rural areas to give information) for the next one month at the tehsil level to spread awareness about the Supreme Court verdict and how it was actually against the Shinde-Fadnavis government.

Copies of highlights from the Supreme Court order were given to all district heads, and party leader Anil Parab explained how the SC verdict on the Shiv Sena split was in favour of the party. The meeting was also an attempt to keep the organisation intact, as party leaders suspect that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will now try to poach on the remaining legislators since his government has survived. The meeting followed a conference of top MVA leaders earlier this week, in which it was decided to contest the coming elections together.

“In Karnataka the BJP did the same thing to the Congress as they did to us,” said Thackeray. “They split the Congress and formed the government. Congress leaders and workers in Karnataka worked hard to reach out to people and expose the BJP’s politics. But while they got five years for preparations, we have only about six months in hand, so work hard to reach out to people and convert the sympathy into votes for the party. Also spread awareness about the SC verdict, which the ruling alliance is trying to create confusion about.” Thackeray added that if the speaker of the assembly did not give the party justice, he would again approach the apex court.

Office-bearers also raised concerns about the possible seat-sharing formula in MVA and the rumours they had heard regarding this. Thackeray assured them that he would protect the interests of the party and would not compromise the number of seats they had won in 2019. “Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has recently said that the elections to local bodies could be in October-November. So without further ado, start preparing for the elections,” he instructed Sena (UBT) office-bearers.

An executive meeting of the party is scheduled on June 18 at the NSCI complex Worli, to which office-bearers up to the tehsil level will be invited. There will be training sessions on various subjects, and on June 19 the Foundation Day of the party will be celebrated in Shanmukhananda Auditorium, said a party official.

Meanwhile, the Sena (UBT) is upset about pictures of an MVA meeting held by NCP chief Sharad Pawar at his residence, where Thackeray is sitting along with smaller leaders. Some office-bearers pointed out that the pictures gave the impression that Pawar was calling the meeting and Thackeray was subservient to him, which was not good from the perception point of view; they said that the Sena (UBT) chief should only participate in meetings where the main MVA leaders were present. Thackeray tried to play this down by saying that this was the first meeting called by Pawar and henceforth he would nominate two leaders from his party to participate in MVA seat-sharing discussions.