Mumbai: BJP's dahi handi at Worli maidan upstages Shiv Sena, stirs political pot

MUMBAI: In a bid to take on Shiv Sena leader and ex-minister Aaditya Thackeray, BJP will organise dahi handi celebrations this Friday at Worli's iconic Jamboree Maidan. Aaditya is MLA from Worli. Sena will now organise its dahi handi at another venue in the neighbourhood.For many years, Sachin Ahir, who was earlier with NCP, used to organize the dahi handi at Jamboree Maidan; Ahir joined Sena in 2019. Later, Sena legislator Sunil Shinde began organising dahi handi there. But this year, newly-appointed city BJP chief Ashish Shelar got BJP to book the venue first. "BJP will organise the dahi handi at Jamboree Maidan. We had applied for permission and we have got it," Shelar said.The Sena said its dahi handi would be at another venue since Jamboree Maidan had been recently renovated and it didn't want to damage the new facilities there.While Ahir's Sankalp Prathistan stopped organising dahi handi after an SC order in 2015, Sena's Shinde organised dahi handi at the maidan last in 2019 before the pandemic broke out. Ahir is now Sena MLC, and so is Shinde. "We had also applied for permission to BMC, but we have been told an NGO applied before us. Our application has not been rejected. But the maidan was recently renovated with funds of Rs 2.5 crore, so many locals have opposed dahi handi as it would damage new facilities. We don't want to go against local sentiments, so we will organise dahi handi at another location nearby," Shinde said.Officials said that the BMC only issues an NoC for events while permission is given by the public works department on a first come first serve basis. Officials said permission is usually given on priority to organisations that have been hosting dahi handi events for many years at one particular venue. Worli's Jamboree Maidan was recently transformed into a sports hub with upgraded facilities courtesy funds from Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray and former CM Uddhav Thackeray. Both had given around Rs 75 lakh each for upgradation.