Matoshree’s game plan is to defeat the Shinde and over 40 rebel MLAs and submit ministers using strong hand tactics – Sena’s USP from the 1970s. Apparently, Minister Uddhav Thackeray Observers added that they are eager to reassert their power and reorganize ahead of the crucial election of the BMC.
At a Sena conclave in Dahisar on Sunday, MP Sanjay Raut likened the rebels – who were cooling off in Guwahati – to bulls sacrificed to protect Goddess Kamakhya, the presiding deity of Assam. “We have sent 40 bulls to Assam for slaughter at the altar of Goddess Kamakhya. Their bodies will soon arrive in Mumbai.
Warning the rebels not to mess with Sena, Raut said, “Shiv Sainiks proudly carry the party’s jhenda (flag) on their shoulders. However, if necessary, they will slip the flag into their pockets and pull it out.”
Minister Sena Aaditya Thackeray also had to use harsh words, or so it seems. Speaking at a table meeting in Mahalaxmi on Saturday, Aaditya warned Shinde and his loyalists that they would face the Sainiks when they arrived in Mumbai from Guwahati, and drove down to Vidhan Bhavan at the Backbay Reclamation in south Mumbai. . “Surname [the rebels] will have to pass through Dadar and Byculla, where they will be greeted by the Sainiks and the women’s wing of the party,” he said, suggesting that the rebels could be taught a suitable lesson by the Sainiks.
Aaditya, who has begun touring Mumbai in an effort to rehabilitate the severely bruised Sena activists, said insurgents escaped Mumbai last week under cover of darkness. “But my name is Aaditya, which means sun,” he said.
However, a veteran of Sena said the party’s ready-to-go politics were out of date. “The Party has no fire in its stomach,” he said.
At a rally in Thane, a stronghold of the Shinde, Shrikant, the son of former MPs Sena and Sena from Kalyan, hit Sena with the strongest possible means. However, so far Shinde Sr has been limited to spraying venom on Sena or CM.
Meanwhile, Sainiks hit the streets in Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Palghar, Parbhani, Satara, Nagpur and Nanded.
It is reported that a group of Sainiks attacked the central office of Shrikant Shinde in Ulhasnagar.
Claiming that maintaining the BMC and MVA regime are two challenges for Shiv Sena, a former civil servant said, “With its more than 35 MLAs leaving Sena, Uddhav Thackeray will flex his organizational muscles to intimidate the rebels into submission. Second, he will revive the party political rhetoric that defined the Balasaheb era.”
