NCP backs Uddhav over staging annual Dasara rally

Only Thackerays have the right to hold the rally at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, says NCP State President Jayant Patil

Amid the raging tussle between the rival Shiv Sena factions over who would hold the party’s annual Dasara rally in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, the Opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), backing the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena faction, said that only a Dasara gathering presided by the Thackeray family could be said to be a ‘legitimate’ one.

Rebuking Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s rival Sena faction, NCP State President Jayant Patil on Sunday said that as the annual Dasara rally was a tradition begun by late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, the ‘real’ Dasara gathering in Dadar’s Shivaji Park could only be the one that was held by the Thackeray family.

“Balasaheb Thackeray started this tradition which has been carried on for the past several years by [Sena president] Uddhav Thackeray. So, only the Thackeray family has a right to hold it… This year’s rally will give a new direction to the Shiv Sainiks,” said Mr. Patil.

The Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress constituted the tripartite ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ coalition before Mr. Shinde’s intra-party rebellion plunged the Sena into turmoil and toppled the MVA Government helmed by Mr. Uddhav Thackeray.

Since then, the two factions have been embroiled in a bitter legal struggle for the control of the party, right from the iconic Shiv Sena bow and arrow symbol to the question of staging the Dasara rally to be held in October.

The rally has been inextricably linked with the Thackeray family, traditionally serving as a platform for some important announcement made on the part of the Sena chief.

Noted for Bal Thackeray’s fiery speeches in the past, his son Uddhav has the ‘custodian’ of this tradition since the Sena founder’s death in 2012.