Sena chief Bal Thackeray likely to address rally
With civic elections barely six months away, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray is likely to address the party's traditional Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai.
With civic elections barely six months away, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray is likely to address the party's traditional Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai.
Sena's mouthpiece Saamna, on Tuesday, made an announcement that Thackeray will address the rally to be held on October 6. Though the Sena chief had stopped addressing the rally due to his ill health, he will attend it this year to guide the Sena workers on how to face the coming civic elections.
Contesting under the leadership of executive president, Uddhav Thackeray, the Sena failed to win the 2009 assembly elections. To make it worse, it slipped to the fourth position after the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).
Sena now faces the uphill task of retaining power in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), India's biggest civic body with an annual budget of Rs20,000 crore. The party is not just facing a formidable opponent in the form of Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, but a strong anti-incumbency wave as the BMC failed in running the city miserably. Sena workers are hoping that Thackeray will guide them on what issues can be taken up for campaigning.