Mumbai: After being denied permission to hold the party’s annual Dussehra Rally on October 5th, the Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena says it will go ahead ‘no matter what’. The leader of the faction Ajay Choudary said pressing the media that they will use guerrilla warfare tactics. “The rally has been taking place at Shivaji Park for 56 years. It could not happen for the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic… It is a matter of loyalty and tradition,” said former Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar, a spokesperson of the Thackeray-led Sena, terming the denial “a bad script by the BJP”.
Meanwhile, the Eknath Shinde-led Sena has approached the HC. MLA Sada Sarvankar, of the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena, filed an application in the Bombay High Court on Thursday seeking the court to not hear or decide the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena’s petition for permission to hold their annual Dussehra rally at the Shivaji Park in Mumbai.
In his application, Sarvankar, the MLA from Dadar in Mumbai, said he belongs to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s faction, who is the “Mukyaneta of Shiv Sena”. He said if the HC passes any order on the issue, then it would cause an impediment to the ongoing dispute on who represents the “real Shiv Sena”.
He claimed the petition filed by the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena is “misleading and misrepresentation” (of facts) as they do not belong to the real Shiv Sena political party.
The BMC on Thursday denied permission to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena as well as Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s faction for holding Dussehra rally at the Shivaji Park in central Mumbai. The permission has been denied on the basis of a law and order issue raised by the Mumbai police, according to civic officials.
The Thackeray-led Sena and Shinde faction had on August 22nd and 30th respectively applied to the BMC seeking permission to hold the rally at the iconic park in central Mumbai.