Uddhav may hint at charges on BJP ministers at 50th anniversary meet

Mumbai: Uddhav Thackeray has pulled out all the stops to celebrate Shiv Sena’s 50th anniversary with pomp and pageantry in view of the 2017 Mumbai civic elections. Balasaheb Thackeray flagged off the Sena at his modest Shivaji Park residence on June 19, 1966 when Uddhav was all of six. Uddhav Thackeray will address a party conclave on the NSC grounds in Goregaon on Sunday to commemorate the event.He is likely to unveil the Sena’s Hinduttva gameplan for nationwide expansion, and also set the tone for the 2017 Mumbai civic elections, sources said.
Matoshree has set its heart on retaining the country’s richest civic body and thus cut the BJP to size. In a significant decision, both Sena and BJP will part ways and contest the Mumbai civic elections as separate political parties, it is learnt. The two parties had fought the 2014 state assembly election on their own strength. However, with Balasaheb no longer around, the BMC election will, in all probability, be an acid test for Uddhav, his son Aaditya and the Sena’s core team at Matoshree, observers said on Saturday.
“Uddhavji’s authority as party president will considerably diminish if the Sena fails to be the No. 1 party in the BMC,” said a Sena corporator. At the party meeting on Sunday, Thackeray will invoke Balasaheb’s myth to make a passionate plea to Shiv Sainiks to work unitedly for the party’s victory in the BMC election, sources said. Meanwhile, Uddhav is likely to launch a fresh onslaught on BJP, the Sena’s senior partner in the saffron government. The Sena has for long been at loggerheads with the BJP on a slew of issues: price rise, PM Narendra Modi’s frequent foreign trips, the Centre’s overtures to Pakistan and the BMC’s faulty road repairs. The Sena’s Shiv Jal Kranti (SJK) scheme is the latest bone of contention between Matoshree and the BJP.
The BJP has been accusing the Sena of floating the SJK scheme to cock a snook at the chief minister’s Jal Shivar Yojana. Thackeray, who toured Osmanabad, where Sena’s SJK scheme is under implementation, on Saturday, has claimed that the rise in Osmanabad’s water stock is entirely because of the deepening-widening work carried out in the local Ulka river under the scheme.
Thackeray may, in his Sunday speech, speak on charges of corruption and malpractices against senior BJP ministers Eknath Khadse and Girish Mahajan. Sena veterans, including Manohar Joshi, Sudhir Joshi, Liladhar Dake, among others, have been invited for the party jamboree. A cultural extravaganza has been planned too to capture the milestones of the Sena’s zigzag route to political stardom.
Pageants and floats depicting the Sena’s chequered history of the last five decades will be paraded through wards in various areas in the next two weeks. Rath yatras and processions amplifying the Sena’s message have been planned as well.
Aaditya Thackeray has been billed to address the Sunday jamboree, it is learnt. This will be the Yuva Sena chief’s first speech at a big-ticket Sena event, sources said. Aaditya is likely to play a key role in planning Sena’s campaign for the BMC elections.
There are civic polls in ten cities, including Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nashik. Also, a clutch of zilla parishad polls are on cards. “The civic polls are an opportunity for us to make inroads into Maharashtra,” said Sena vibhagpramukh Anil Parab.