One year after split, two Shiv Senas to mark foundation day at separate events

The Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray-led factions of the Shiv Sena will celebrate the party’s foundation day at separate events in Mumbai on Monday (June 19).

Bal Thackeray, a political cartoonist, founded the Shiv Sena on June 19, 1966, and made the pride of “Marathi manoos” (Marathi speakers in Mumbai) the core plank of its politics.

Both the factions have now been trying to claim the mantle of the true inheritor of the party founder late Bal Thackeray’s legacy ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections as well as the long-due civic polls in Mumbai.

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The Shiv Sena split in June last year after Shinde and 39 other party MLAs rebelled against then Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and toppled the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government of the Sena, NCP, and Congress.

Shinde then became chief minister with the BJP’s support and the Election Commission of India subsequently granted his faction the original party name and “bow and arrow” symbol while the Thackeray group was named Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).

While the Shinde-led Shiv Sena will hold its event at the NESCO ground in Goregaon in northwest Mumbai on Monday (June 19), the Shiv Sena (UBT) will celebrate the foundation day at Shanmukhanand Hall at Sion in central Mumbai.

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Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde, the son of chief minister Eknath Shinde, last week said party workers from across the state will gather for the event.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut has asserted that the Uddhav Thackeray-led group is the real Shiv Sena.

(With agency inputs)