Shiv Sena split marks one year! Shinde, Thackeray factions to celebrate party’s foundation day today

After one year of the split, the Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray-led factions of the Shiv Sena will celebrate the party's foundation day at separate events today, Monday, June 19. 

The Shiv Sena split took place in June last year after Shinde and 39 other party MLAs rebelled against then Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and toppled the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government. 

In June 1966, political cartoonist Bal Thackeray founded the Shiv Sena and made the pride of ‘Marathi manoos’ (Marathi speakers in Mumbai) the core plant of its politics. 

Following the split, both factions have been trying to claim the mantle of the ‘true inheritor’ of party founder late Bal Thackeray's legacy ahead of the next year's Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections as well as the long-due civic polls in Mumbai. 

Shinde then became chief minister with the BJP's support and the Election Commission of India subsequently granted his faction the original party name and `bow and arrow' symbol while the Thackeray group was named Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).

The Shinde-led Shiv Sena will hold the party's foundation day event at the NESCO ground in Goregaon in northwest Mumbai on Monday, while the Shiv Sena (UBT) will celebrate the day at Shanmukhanand Hall at Sion in central Mumbai.

Last week, Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde, the son of chief minister Eknath Shinde said party workers from across the state will gather for the event.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut has asserted that the Uddhav Thackeray-led group is the real Shiv Sena.

One day before the party's foundation day, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Manisha Kayande became the second lawmaker to defect to the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. This came after the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction removed her as a spokesperson earlier on Sunday for ‘anti-party’ activities.

Kayande claimed that she had waited for a year to see if the Thackeray-led faction would introspect over why party workers were leaving Shiv Sena (UBT).

She also said that she was not involved in any anti-party activities. Kayande is currently a member of the state Legislative Council from the Legislative Assembly quota. Her term expires in July 2024.

(With PTI inputs)