Can take on BJP in BMC grudge match, says Uddhav

Thackeray will be informally launching his BMC poll campaign with a rally of the Shiv Sena’s gatapramukhs at the NESCO ground at Goregaon on September 21

Mumbai: A day after union home minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah called on party cadre to trounce the Shiv Sena in the Mumbai civic polls, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said the BJP was out to finish the Shiv Sena, but that he and his party were up to the challenge of countering them.

Thackeray’s remarks came at a meeting with party office bearers and Mumbai vibhag pramukhs (division chiefs) at his residence, Matoshree (Vijayanand Gupta/HT Photo)

Thackeray will be informally launching his BMC poll campaign with a rally of the Shiv Sena’s gatapramukhs at the NESCO ground at Goregaon on September 21.

Thackeray’s remarks came at a meeting with party office bearers and Mumbai vibhag pramukhs (division chiefs) at his residence, Matoshree. “The meeting was called to discuss the Dussehra rally and the preparations for the BMC elections,” said one of the vibhag pramukhs who was in attendance. Regardless of the Shinde camp’s efforts to edge out Thackeray from Shivaji Park and have their own rally there, Uddhav is determined that he will hold his Dussehra rally at the ground as per tradition.

But before the October 5 Dussehra rally, is the one at NESCO addressing the gatapramukhs. They are the primary rung of the Sena’s organisation and are in charge of booth-level management, much like the BJP’s panna pramukhs. Though each booth is supposed to have one gatapramukh, the number may go up to two or even three depending on the population and size of the constituency. The gatapramukhs mobilize voters and form the nucleus of the Shiv Sena’s organisation in Mumbai. They are, thus, crucial to its victory in any election. The Shiv Sena begins all its BMC campaigns with a meeting of the gatapramukhs.

This NESCO rally will also mark Uddhav Thackeray’s first public meeting in Mumbai after the fall of his government this June. The BMC, which is India’s richest civic body, has been controlled by the Shiv Sena between1985-1992 and then from 1997 till date. Holding on to it is crucial for the Sena after losing power in the state. Many of its full-time workers survive on the spoils that trickle down through the power networks in the civic body. This ‘reward economy’ helps keep its party organisation in fine fettle.

However, unlike previous elections, the Shiv Sena will be challenged not just by the party’s breakaway faction and Raj Thackeray’s MNS, but also a BJP that senses unprecedented victory. Amit Shah told party workers on Monday that they should aim for 150 seats in the 227-seat House. He also set the tone for the civic elections by terming Uddhav Thackeray as the ‘betrayer’ and the ‘backstabber’.

“If the Shinde camp is given the Shiv Sena symbol in their legal fight with Thackeray, the battle for BMC will be much easier for us,” said a senior BJP state leader. “But even if the symbol is frozen, it will work to our and Shinde camp’s advantage. The tacit understanding with MNS in the Shiv Sena dominated areas will help us restrict Uddhav’s party, and we do not see any problem in winning more than 115 seats,” he claimed.

The Shiv Sena’s response to Shah’s barbs was swift. On Tuesday, Aaditya Thackeray said that Shah’s comments about treachery should have been directed at Shinde and his ‘40 traitors.’

“I am too small to comment on it but it is the people who will teach a lesson to the 40 traitor MLAs and also the MPs who ditched the party…They (the rebels) say they still respect the Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray, and yet they backstabbed the party,” he said while speaking at a function in Navi Mumbai. At the same function, he spoke about the BJP’s BMC mission: “I say hold the elections today--not just civic elections, but also state elections—and then let us see who wins. Let the BJP-Eknath Shinde-MNS come together and form an alliance, but the people of the state are with us and that is our real power,” he said.