A day after losing the bow-arrow battle — which was a prestige war too — to Eknath Shinde, former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday appeared strong and aggressive as he addressed his supporters outside his residence Matoshree from a car with a sunroof. Giving a clarion call for the next election, Uddhav said, “Are you scared? I have nothing to give you now.”
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As many drew a parallel between Saturday’s angry Uddhav to Balasaheb, BJP’s Keshav Upadhye said Uddhav can’t become Balasaheb just by standing on the car. To become Balasaheb, hard work is needed, the BJP leader tweeted. “Balasaheb toiled day and night, maintained the workers, raised the organisation, brought Shiv Sena to power. The copy-bahadur, on the other hand, never stepped out of his house, never met the workers, hurt the party organisation and came to power by treachery,” the BJP leader tweeted.
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In 1968, Balasaheb addressed a gathering standing on the roof of a car which many remembered on Saturday.
“We should not rest till we teach the thief a lesson in elections. Start preparing for elections immediately,” Uddhav said. “The thief has hurled a stone at a beehive. But he has not experienced the sting of honeybees,” Uddhav added. Shinde has stolen the bow and the arrow but like Ravana who could not lift the Shiv Dhanush, Shinde will not be able to carry the stolen bow and arrow. “The thief wants the Thackeray name, Balasaheb’s photo but not the Shiv Sena family,” Uddhav said.
In a landmark order, the election commission on Friday ruled in favour of the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena and said it will be known as Shiv Sena and will also contest elections with the bow and the arrow symbol. This put an end to a long-drawn battle that started with the rebellion of Eknath Shinde and his camp of MLAs who went to Assam and withdrew support from the Uddhav government leading it to collapse. While Eknath Shinde replaced him as the chief minister with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy, the dispute over Shiv Sena legacy remained unresolved.
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While the EC order is a huge blow to the Uddhav camp, the former chief minister has refused to take a beating. Uddhav faction is likely to move the Supreme Court against the election commission’s order.