THACKERAY VS THACKERAYS

Like in his lifetime, the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray still looms large over the political landscape of Maharashtra, with the ruling BJP-Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena (BSS) coalition trying to challenge the claim of former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray's residuary Shiv Sena over the Thackeray legacy.

- Dhaval Kulkarni

Current CM and Sena dissident Eknath Shinde is now using estranged members of the Thackeray clan to support his claim of being the true inheritor of the Sena legacy, and isolate Uddhav, Bal Thackeray's son and heir and president of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Bal Thackeray). The reasons are obvious the late Shiv Sena chief continues to command a talismanic pull over the party faithful.

This fight is expected to intensify in the run-up to the crucial elections to local bodies-including the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-due this year, and eventually the 2024 Lok Sabha and state assembly polls. Shinde is also locked in a legal battle with Uddhav's faction over the name and the bow-and-arrow' symbol of the original Shiv Sena. The CM and the BJP claim Uddhav has "betrayed" the Hindutva ideology espoused by his father by allying with the "secular" Congress and NCP for the sole reason of becoming chief minister (as head of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi rainbow coalition) in 2019.

Shinde is also using the aura of his late political mentor 'Dharmaveer' Anand Dighe aka 'Dighe saheb', who held undisputed sway over the Shiv Sena's affairs in Mumbai's satellite city Thane and was known for his active role in mobilisation during communal conflicts to drive his message home. In fact, the May 2022 release of Dharmaveer, a biopic on Dighe, had preceded Shinde's midnight revolt (in June 2022). Shinde's rebellion led to a vertical split in the Shiv Sena legislative and parliamentary party, with 40 of 56 MLAs and 13 of 19 Lok Sabha MPs joining his faction, later named BSS.