After the Election Commission of India (ECI), on Friday, 17 February, recognised the Eknath Shinde faction as the 'real' Shiv Sena, ordering that it will retain the original party name and the party symbol bow and arrow, it is now being discussed whether the Shinde camp will stake claim on other properties too.
Former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had filed a plea against the ECI's decision in the Supreme Court on Monday.
There are murmurs that the Shinde faction may demand access to the bank account that holds party funds.
Kapil Sibal, appearing for Thackeray in the court on Tuesday, said that the rival faction was taking over the bank accounts and properties. Who gets to control the bank accounts may depend on what the Supreme Court decides.
After the Shinde camp legislators took possession of the Shiv Sena party office in the Maharashtra legislature on Monday, it was also allotted the party office in Parliament House by the Lok Sabha Secretariat a day later.
Sentimental Relationship Between Shiv Sena Bhavan and the Thackerays
When asked if they will demand the party headquarter Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar, Mumbai, Maharashtra Chief Minister Shinde, in a press conference on Monday said that the ideology of Balasaheb Thackeray and Anand Dighe is their only property and that they will not stake claim on any party property.
The Shiv Sena Bhavan, which was built in 1974, is owned by Shivai Seva Trust, a charitable organisation controlled by close associates of Uddhav Thackeray. It will be difficult for Shinde to pursue this property legally. However, he will not go after it for one more reason.
"The Thackeray family and the Shiv Sena Bhavan are interlinked. That association is firmly etched in people's minds too. If Shinde stakes claim on it, Uddhav will get more sympathy and this move will ultimately be beneficial to the Thackeray scion," Sanjay Patil, who works at the University of Mumbai and whose doctoral research has focused on Shiv Sena, told The Quint.
The party mouthpiece Saamana and the weekly Marmik too are not owned by the party but a private company called Prabodhan Prakashan, whose board members are Sanjay Ramchandra Wadekar, Vivek Tatojirao Kadam, Aditya Uddhav Thackeray, Rashmi Uddhav Thackeray and Uddhav Bal Thackeray. It is unlikely that Shinde will want ownership of these publications.
A protracted battle may, however, be fought for the possession of hundreds of party offices, called shakhas, in Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra. These offices have mixed ownership. Most of the Mumbai ones are owned by Shivai Seva Trust, and they will mostly stay with the Thackeray faction. The ones that are independently owned by shakha pramukhs (branch heads) or have some other kind of ownership pattern, may swing either way depending on the local politics.
Senior journalist and political analyst Hemant Desai told The Quint that some of these offices are built on encroached land and are illegal structures. "Thackeray is strong in Mumbai while Shinde is strong in Thane. if Shinde stakes claims on shakhas in Mumbai, Thackeray can do the same in Thane," he further said.
Shakhas Crucial in Sena's Politics
"Shakhas are Shiv Sena's nervous system. Bal Thackeray had this policy that each ward in Mumbai will have one shakha. Where there was no Sena corporator, Thackeray had instructed the shakha pramukh there to act as an informal corporator to look into people's issues," Patil stated.
"Shiv Sena owes its existence to shakhas and therefore controlling them is important for both Thackeray and Shinde," he further asserted.
These shakhas and shakha pramukhas will play an important role in the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. It has been almost a year since the BMC's term ended in March 2022, but the elections were first postponed due to the legal battle over the Other Backward Class (OBC) reservation in Maharashtra's civic body polls and later due to the tussle over wards reorganisation in Mumbai.
"Uddhav currently has a sympathy wave behind him. Therefore, the municipal elections will be further postponed so that he does not benefit from it. The more his opponents go after him, the more sympathy he gets. And this is not a problem just for Shinde but also for the BJP," Desai told The Quint.
Many corporators from the previous term are holding their cards close to their chest – they haven't yet made it clear if they will go with Thackeray or Shinde. Desai opined that some corporators may go with the BJP too.
"This fight is actually between the Thackeray faction and the BJP. Shinde is a just pawn in this fight who will be thrown aside as soon as his utility ends," Patil stated.
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