Sena factions get ready for yet another show of strength on Dussehra

The Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena will once again indulge in a show of strength with their Dussehra rallies in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Ever since the Shiv Sena split in June last year, the Shiv Sena-UBT led by Uddhav Thackeray and the Shinde group, which got the party name and symbol, have been engaged in a tussle to show themselves as the true inheritor of founder Bal Thackeray's legacy.

While Uddhav Thackeray will address his party's Dussehra rally at the sprawling Shivaji Park in Dadar, the traditional venue of the event where Bal Thackeray charged up his workers with his fiery oratory for more than four decades, Shinde's rally will be at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai.

Like last year, there was initially some confusion on who would get the nod to conduct the rally at Shivaji Park.

The two rallies also assume significance as Lok Sabha elections are just a few months away, while civic polls in several cities, including Mumbai, are pending since early 2022.

In the run-up to the rallies, the Thackeray faction has released several video clips of Bal Thackeray's speeches, especially those highlighting action that needs to be taken against defectors.

These have been widely shared by Shiv Sena-UBT workers.

The Shinde group's teasers about its rally, on the other hand, have Bal Thackeray's speeches where he has robustly espoused the cause of Hindutva.

While the Uddhav Thackeray group has consistently called members of the Shinde faction as "traitors", the latter claims the former chief minister broke the alliance with the BJP and joined hands with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party after forsaking Hindutva.

The Shiv Sena split in June last year after Shinde and several MLAs rebelled and brought down the Maha Vikas Aghadi government of Uddhav Thackeray.

Shinde then formed government with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party.