A day after Dasara rallies, allies of the Shinde and Uddhav camps spew vitriol

BJP says numbers at rally prove the ‘real’ Shiv Sena is with Eknath Shinde; Uddhav camp and its allies claim Shinde read the BJP’s ‘script’, venue was filled with paid supporters 

Even as the sabre-rattling between rival Shiv Sena factions led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray intensified a day after their Dasara rallies, their respective allies spewed vitriol on each other, with the Congress slamming Mr. Shinde for “reading the Bharatiya Janata Party’s script” at his address, and the BJP claiming that the unprecedented crowds at Mr. Shinde’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) rally conclusively proved that the ‘real’ Shiv Sena was the one led by the CM and not Uddhav Thackeray.

Speaking in Pune, BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis remarked that despite the size of the BKC grounds being twice the size of Dadar’s Shivaji Park (where Mr. Thackeray held his rally), the gargantuan crowds which came from Mumbai city, the surrounding Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and other parts of Maharashtra resoundingly showed that the “true” Sena was the one led by Mr. Shinde.

Also read | Why Mumbai’s Shivaji Park matters for Shiv Sena

“The Shiv Sena cadre have definitively shown that the ‘real’ Sena is one that is led by CM Eknath Shinde. I congratulate the CM… ​It is pointless to comment on Uddhav Thackeray’s speech as his address contained nothing but noise. He has levelled the same accusations so many times that we are tired of hearing it. He really ought to change his script writer,” Mr. Fadnavis said, responding to Mr. Thackeray’s criticism of him and the accusation of the BJP having allegedly ‘stabbed’ the Shiv Sena during the latter’s address.

In a riposte, the Thackeray camp and their Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies — the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — lashed out at Mr. Shinde’s speech and the BJP, with Sena MP Arvind Sawant remarking that Mr. Shinde’s speech was written by Mr. Fadnavis.

The Uddhav camp mocked the CM for the number of the times Mr. Shinde had to look at his speech and read it out. The Uddhav camp also claimed their own rally at Shivaji Park “was the biggest in the history” of the Shiv Sena since its inception in 1966.

“We have surpassed our own previous records…Shivaji Park was spilling over with loyal Shiv Sainiks. It proved just how strong the Sena is under Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership,” Mr. Sawant, an Uddhav loyalist, said.