Promote decisions of MVA government, start enrolment drive in Maharashtra: Uddhav Thackeray to Shiv Sena leaders

With the first anniversary of the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government a month away, party chief and Maharashtra chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray

With the first anniversary of the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government a month away, party chief and Maharashtra chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray directed the Sena’s district presidents to carry forward the decisions taken by MVA government to the people. Thackeray, who held a meeting with district chiefs of the party late on Tuesday evening via video-conference, also directed them to carry out a drive to enrol a minimum of 30,000 new party members in each of the 288 assembly seats.

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State environment and tourism minister and Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray, in a tweet, said, “Like every month, last night Shiv Sena chief, and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray interacted with Shiv Sena district chiefs. He directed them to tackle Covid issue, give support to farmers, and take the public service done by the Maha Vikas Aghadi to every citizen.”

A senior party functionary said that Thackeray, in his address to district heads, stressed on promoting the work done by the government, including loan waivers, tackling of the Covid-19 outbreak, and the recently-announced crop compensation. “A large period of the first year has gone into [handling] the pandemic, but there were several decisions taken for the people, including loan waiver, etc. Uddhav ji has asked us to spread it [information] in our district. He asked us to help out farmers for spot assessments and to avail the compensations,” the functionary said.

A district functionary of the party from north Maharashtra said that the party will start campaigns to spread the word on the MVA government’s decisions. “There has been such a negative campaign by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since the government was formed, then coronavirus [pandemic] started. We will inform people in our districts of the work done by the government. There will be a publicity exercise around the first anniversary; we will put up hoardings, distribute flyers, etc,” he said.

In a bid to expand the base of the party, the Sena chief has directed all leaders to start enrolment drives. The senior party functionary added that a target of minimum 30,000 new members has been set for each assembly seat. “The idea is to form a critical base in the district, which, over a period of time can translate into votes for the party. The exercise will help the party strengthen in regions it is strong, and also build on regions where traditionally it has been weak, for instance, Vidarbha,” the functionary said.

A Sena district head from western Maharashtra said, “Currently, we cannot have enrolment drives in the traditional format with a pandal, etc, due to Covid-19. However, we will start a door-to-door campaign keeping Covid-19 precautions or distribute forms in a targeted manner. We are looking at 6,000-7,000 families to register in every constituency.”

Reacting to Thackeray’s appeal to Shiv Sena district leaders, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said there is no need to draw any other conclusion from the statement as all have the right to strengthen their own parties. “Everyone has the right to strengthen its own party. I have been hearing the statement on waving Shiv Sena’s saffron flag on its own since last 30 years. There is no need to draw any other conclusion,” Pawar told reporters in Nashik.

He said that the decision on making an alliance for local bodies will have to be taken by Thackeray, Balasaheb Thorat, state Congress chief and Jayant Patil, state NCP chief. However, the attempts to keep BJP at bay have given good results so far.