New Sena reiterates old commitments at first executive meet

Mumbai: Within a week of the Election Commission of India granting his faction the name and the symbol of the Shiv Sena, Eknath Shinde held its executive body meeting at a 5-star hotel in south Mumbai

Mumbai: Within a week of the Election Commission of India granting his faction the name and the symbol of the Shiv Sena, Eknath Shinde held its executive body meeting at a 5-star hotel in south Mumbai.

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On Tuesday evening, this new avatar of the Shiv Sena adopted several resolutions over a two-and-a-half-hour- long session to reiterate their commitment to the issues of sons of the soil and Hindutva. The resolutions passed include the party’s commitment to ensuring 80 percent jobs in new industries to sons of the soil, classical language status for Marathi, a Bharat Ratna for ideologue V D Savarkar and renaming Churchgate station after ex-finance minister, the late Chintamanirao Deshmukh.

The mood at the hotel which saw a full turnout of Sena ministers, MPs, MLAs, and leaders like Ramdas Kadam, Gajanan Kirtikar, Anand Adsul, Pratap Jadhav and Gulabrao Patil, was celebratory. The resolutions passed indicate this Shiv Sena’s adherence to the ideology of the old Sena.

Industries minister Uday Samant later briefed the media and said among the other resolutions passed by the party was its commitment to conserving the many forts in the state and to start coaching classes for students to ensure a greater percentage of Maharashtrians could find success in competitive exams.

In addition to renaming Churchgate, the Shiv Sena also proposed adding the names of Veermata Jijabai Bhosale (mother of Chhatrapati Shivaji), Ahilyabai Holkar, Chhatrapati Sambhaji to the list of national heroes, said Samant.

The Executive Committee also resolved to comply with the conditions and rules laid down by the Election Commission while giving its order on Friday. It also congratulated the government led by their party president Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for the work being done in the state. Party

spokesperson Krishna Hegde added, “We also passed a resolution to win 200 seats in the next assembly elections in alliance with the BJP and 45 seats in the 2024 parliamentary elections.”

A three-member committee comprising ministers Dada Bhuse, Shamburaj Desai and party secretary Sanjay More has been constituted to take disciplinary action against those breaching party code of conduct. Essentially, this is to oversee action against MLAs of Shiv Sena (UBT) who don’t follow the whip. Yet another resolution was passed condemning Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut for badmouthing Eknath Shinde’s mentor, the late Anand Dighe.