Battle For Survival For Uddhav Thackeray

Two simultaneous battles have been tearing the Shiv Sena apart-one for control of the legislative party, and another for securing Balasaheb's political legacy. Winning just one may not be enough to win the larger political war

- Dnyanesh Jathar

The year was 1967. The Shiv Sena, formed just a year earlier, was preparing for the Lok Sabha polls. It had no candidate in the fray, but Balasaheb Thackeray had decided that his party would oppose two south Indians contesting from constituencies in Mumbai- V.K. Krishna Menon and George Fernandes. Menon was contesting as an independent and Fernandes as Samyukta Socialist Party candidate. Balasaheb supported two Congress leaders, S.G. Barve and S.K. Patil, against Menon and Fernandes, respectively.

At that time, the number two man in the Shiv Sena was Balwant Mantri. He had addressed crowds just ahead of Balasaheb at the Sena’s first-ever Dussehra rally in 1966, which made him second in the party hierarchy.

Mantri strongly believed in Balasaheb’s ‘sons of the soil’ cause, but he was temperamentally different. He wanted the Sena to be run on democratic principles. At a meeting in Vanmali Hall in Dadar, he prepared to tell the cadre about the need to run the Shiv Sena as a democratic party.

“Just as his speech was about to begin, a group of Shiv Sainiks rushed to the stage,” writes journalist Prakash Akolkar in Jai Maharashtra, a book on the Sena. “They pulled Mantri aside and began beating him. They tore off his clothes, blackened his face and body, and paraded him from Vanmali Hall to the office of Marmik (the weekly that was the Sena’s mouthpiece before Saamana was launched) in Shivaji Park area. Mantri was thrown at Thackeray’s feet and was made to apologise profusely. That was the day it became clear to the Sainiks that Thackeray’s will be the last word in party matters.”