Thackeray loyalists guard Sena office at BMC HQ

More than a dozen former corporators of the Uddhav Thackeray-led group camped outside the Shiv Sena office at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters in Mumbai to thwart any attempt by the Eknath Shinde-led faction to take control of it.

After the former corporators sat outside the office located on the ground floor of the BMC headquarters on Monday, police security was stepped up to avoid any law and order issue, officials said on Tuesday.

Notably, CM Shinde on Monday said no claim will be laid on any party property post the Election Commission's decision on the real Shiv Sena as "we are heirs of Balasaheb Thackeray's ideology and have no temptations".

"The Election Commission took the decision on the Shiv Sena name and bow and arrow symbol as per rules, and the office in the 'vidhimandal' (Legislature complex) is of the Shiv Sena. As far as property is concerned, we have no temptations," he had said.

Those who were tempted by property and wealth took the wrong step in 2019, he had said in an apparent reference to Uddhav Thackeray breaking the Shiv Sena's alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party post the assembly poll results over the sharing of the chief ministerial tenure.

Thackeray had aligned with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which ruled till June last year.

In December 2022, the BMC administration had sealed offices of all political parties at the civic headquarters following a face-off between the rival Shiv Sena factions.

Those offices are still sealed.

The BMC headquarters, which is a heritage building, has offices of all major political parties on its ground floor.

The Election Commission on Friday recognised the Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordered allocation of the 'bow and arrow' poll symbol to it, in the process delivering a big blow to Uddhav Thackeray, whose father Bal Thackeray founded the outfit in 1966.

The EC allowed the Thackeray faction to retain the name Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the 'flaming torch' poll symbol, given to it in an interim order in October last year, till the conclusion of the upcoming assembly bypolls in the state.