Shinde forms new Sena national executive, retains Uddhav as party president

Although Uddhav Thackeray has been retained as the party chief, it is evident that the rebels want to use him as a mere figurehead, with Shinde, who commands the support of a majority of MLAs and MPs, calling the shots in the party.

Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde on Monday anointed himself as the chief leader or ‘mukhya neta’ of the Shiv Sena and also announced a new national executive of the party comprising the rebels. Uddhav Thackeray, however, continues to be the Shiv Sena President in Shinde’s new national executive.

Shinde’s move to seize control of the party ahead of the SC hearing gains significance because 12 of the 19 Sena MPs too have supported Shinde’s move to dissolve the national executive and reconstitute it. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

The Supreme Court is slated to hear a clutch of petitions filed by warring Sena factions this Wednesday. Shinde’s move to seize control of the party ahead of the SC hearing gains significance because 12 of the 19 Sena MPs too have supported Shinde’s move to dissolve the national executive and reconstitute it.

Although Uddhav Thackeray has been retained as the party chief, it is evident that the rebels want to use him as a mere figurehead, with Shinde, who commands the support of a majority of MLAs and MPs, calling the shots in the party. This new arrangement has, not surprisingly, been rejected by Uddhav Thackeray who had already sacked Shinde from his post as ‘Leader’ in the Sena national executive.

“Uddhav Thackeray has been retained as the party president, but Shinde will be the ‘mukhya neta’. Other organizational appointments, including the appointment of Anandrao Adsul and Ramdas Kadam as the party’s leaders have also been approved,” said a Shiv Sena MP from the Shinde camp. Legislators Tanaji Sawant, Gulabrao Patil, Uday Samant, former MP Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil, Yashwant Jadhav, ex-bureaucrat Vijay Nahata and actor Sharad Ponkshe have been appointed as deputy leaders and MLA Deepak Kesarkar as the party’s chief spokesperson.

In the Sena’s hierarchy, the party chief is assisted by netas (leaders) and upnetas (deputy leaders) to run the party. Shinde’s position as chief leader is a new creation.

“The decision to affirm Uddhavji (Thackeray) as the party chief and Shinde as the chief leader has been done considering the legal battle between the two over who controls the real Shiv Sena,” said a newly-appointed deputy leader. This indicates that the Shinde camp is sticking to its guns and insisting that it has not split from the Sena, but represents the “true” or ideologically pure face of the party as it has allied with Hindutva fellow traveller, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The claim that their faction is the original Sena is important for the rebels as under the anti-defection law, a breakaway group of MLAs cannot maintain its separate existence in the assembly and it has therefore to merge with one of the parties in the assembly. Most of the Shiv Sena MLAs who have gone with Shinde are against merging their group in any other party.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party is optimistic that the Supreme Court will recognise them as the original Shiv Sena. “Today’s move is on account of the fact that the Shinde camp is afraid justice will be done by the court. How can one faction scrap the national executive of the Shiv Sena? This group has not even secured recognition as a political party and is scrapping the national executive of the 56-year-old Shiv Sena of Balasaheb Thackeray… this is meant to save their own skin and keep disgruntlement in the dissident ranks under check,” said Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, while speaking to the media in New Delhi. He added that because they were unsure of how the SC might rule, the expansion of the Shinde-Fadnavis cabinet had been delayed. “The Shiv Sena is where the Thackerays are,” asserted Raut.

Meanwhile, former minister and senior Shiv Sena leader Ramdas Kadam quit his organizational post (as a leader) in a letter to Thackeray earlier on Monday. The party issued a release saying Uddhav Thackeray had expelled Kadam as well as former union minister Anandrao Adsul for anti-party activities. Kadam’s son and party MLA Yogesh and Adsul’s son Abhijit are with the Shinde faction.

Kadam, who was the leader of opposition in the Maharashtra legislative assembly (2005-9) after the rebellion of Narayan Rane and the environment minister in the erstwhile BJP-Shiv Sena government (2014-19), was reportedly upset at being dropped from the list of cabinet ministers. He was also denied a re-nomination to the Maharashtra state legislative council this year and had openly vented his anger against then transport minister and Thackeray loyalist Anil Parab. In his resignation letter addressed to Thackeray, Kadam charged him with not taking party leaders into confidence and frowned upon the alliance with the Congress and the NCP.

Both, Kadam and Adsul are part of Shinde’s new national executive.