MUMBAI: Though CM Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena on Saturday said it will not take over Shiv Sena Bhavan, the party headquarters in Dadar, the fight for control of the shakhas, the backbone of the party structure, is set to intensify.
While a skirmish broke out in Dapoli in Ratnagiri on Saturday over control of a local shakha, functionaries with the Uddhav Thackeray faction said the shakha network was still with them and would not go anywhere. On the other hand, some observers said the Shinde Sena may capture the shakhas in a slow, phase-wise manner.
The Sena's frontal organisations and unions will be another bone of contention with Shinde's group being recognised as the real Shiv Sena by the Election Commission. How the Uddhav faction can, with party name and symbol gone, retain shakhas and office-bearers is another question.
'Removal of Uddhav, Aaditya's pics first step towards gaining shakhas'The Shiv Sena used to have 227 shakhas in Mumbai and around 500 in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), including Eknath Shinde's stronghold of Thane, but they are mostly owned by the shakha pramukhs, local leaders and trusts. Almost none of the shakhas is owned by the Shiv Sena party itself.
With their faction being declared the legitimate Shiv Sena, Shinde Sena functionaries said that they are confident the shakha pramukhs will now pledge loyalty to the real Shiv Sena, and the first indication of this will be the removal of Uddhav and Aaditya Thackeray's photos from the shakhas. They will be replaced with photographs of CM Eknath Shinde alongside those of Sena founder, late Balasaheb Thackeray, and late Thane heavyweight of the Sena Anand Dighe, whom Shinde considers his political mentor.
A bitter but more tactical and legal fight is set to break out for control of the Shiv Sena's worker groups and unions in the state and Central government institutions, like the Bharatiya Kamgar Sena and the Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti, and wings in private organizations like hotels and business groups. A lot of the Sena's muscle, money power and clout comes from its hold on these unions and organizations for decades. In the Sena, the shakhas and the frontal organizations are said to be the party's political capital and engines, along with party mouthpiece Saamna.
"Shiv Sena Bhavan and our shakhas will not be taken over by the Shinde faction just because of the EC's order. Our Shiv Sainiks will sit there and that place will serve as a branch of Shiv Sena. Shiv Sena party is ours. A party is not going anywhere because a few people sitting on the chair made a decision. Sena shakhas, including Shiv Sena Bhavan, will stay with us", Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said.
The shakha forms the most important part of Sena's party organisation as it is a one-point contact for Sainiks as well as citizens of a particular area to get their work done or to reach out to Sena for help. In a party which has a largely horizontal framework, the shakha also works as a forum to get orders from the Thackerays so that they can be implemented and a connect formed with voters at the grassroots level.
While the Shiv Sena Bhavan is owned by the Shivai Trust, shakhas are owned largely by shakha pramukhs privately or their affiliated organisations. Saamna, the party's mouthpiece, is owned by the Pradodhan Prakashan.
Shinde faction MLA Sanjay Shirsat said, "Shiv Sena Bhavan is not just a building but a temple for us. So we will never claim Shiv Sena Bhavan. Whenever we pass by it, we will bow in front of it. Many of our memories are associated with Shiv Sena Bhavan."
Interestingly, even after CM Shinde caused a vertical split in the Sena, the Shinde faction had so far not been able to get a hold on the shakhas, at least in Mumbai.
The November 2022 win of Uddhav faction's Rutuja Latke in the Andheri (E) assembly bypoll too had shown that the all-important shakha network was still largely backing Thackeray. Observers said a large section of Sena workers still backed Thackeray and the desertion of Shinde had not cut much ice with committed voters. However, observers now said that with the party's name and symbol going to Shinde, shakhas may be taken over gradually.
So far in Mumbai, less than a dozen shakha pramukhs have switched sides and jumped over to the Shinde faction from July 2022, when Shinde defected along with 40 MLAs to topple the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray. In August last year, the Shinde faction opened its first shakha (branch) in Mumbai. It was inaugurated by Sena MP Rahul Shewale in Mankhurd's
Maharashtra Nagar. Shewale had said that the Shinde Sena would soon open shakhas all over Mumbai, but six months later, the Shinde faction hadn't opened many new shakhas.
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