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Sena vs Sena: Uddhav Thackeray, Eknath Shinde set for face-off with Dussehra rallies in Mumbai
This year, Uddhav Thackeray will address his supporters at Shivaji Park in Dadar, while Eknath Shinde will hold his rally at the NESCO Exhibition Centre.
Mumbai’s Dussehra rallies, a tradition started by Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray in 1966, will once again turn into a stage for political one-upmanship on Thursday as rival factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde hold parallel events in the city.
This year, Uddhav Thackeray will address his supporters at Shivaji Park in Dadar, while Shinde will hold his rally at the NESCO Exhibition Centre in Goregaon.
The rallies turned into a political battleground after the 2022 split, when Shinde’s rebellion against Uddhav created two factions.
The rallies come in the wake of the Thackeray-led Sena’s defeat in the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections and ahead of crucial local body polls in Mumbai and across the state.
Uddhav Thackeray is expected to attack the BJP-led Centre and the state government on issues such as financial aid for farmers in flood-hit Marathwada. He may also touch upon the possibility of a political understanding with his cousin and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray.
Verbal duel
The rallies are also expected to fuel the war of words between the factions. Ahead of the rally face-off, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut dismissed the Shinde camp’s show as inconsequential, saying it would generate only “smoke.”
“Shinde has begun to think of himself as another Bal Thackeray but he can not understand the late Sena patriarch,” news agency PTI quoted Raut as saying.
“There are only two Dussehra rallies in Maharashtra: One held by the RSS (in Nagpur), and the other by Uddhav Thackeray,” he added.
Weather challenge
Shinde, who had originally planned to hold his rally at Azad Maidan, shifted the venue to Goregaon after heavy rains left the South Mumbai ground waterlogged. He also appealed to party workers from outside Mumbai not to travel to the city, urging them instead to assist flood-hit farmers, reported the news agency.
Preparations at Shivaji Park were also hampered on Tuesday as intermittent rain left large puddles at the ground. A downpour on Thursday could affect the UBT rally.
