Sena chief to address 41st Dassera rally

Mumbai, Sep 29 (UNI) Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray who will turn 80 on January 23 next year will address the 41st consecutive Dassera rally at Shivaji Park, Dadar in Central Mumbai on October 2.

Senior Sena leader Subhash Desai said a person addressing a meeting at the same place for 41 consecutive years is a record in itself.

When asked whether the party had approached the Guinness Book of World Record to have this incident mentioned in their record book, his reply was negative.

Back in 1966, at the age of 40 Mr Thackeray, a cartoonist by profession had addresed the first public meeting at the venue.

Since then he has addressed the meeting at the same place every year and his meetings are considered as the biggest crowd pullers.

In those days, his eloquency was centred around the issue and condition of 'Marathi Manoos' in Mumbai. Gradually, the party's base started widening and it won the Mayoral elections at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

In the late 80s, the Sena entered into an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and took up the cause of 'Hindutva' besides speaking about the native Marathi-speaking people. This was evident in Mr Thackeray's speeches, which echoed on vibrant Hinduism.

The party made a fervent use of this agenda to win the state assembly elections in 1995 to gain power for the first time.

However, after this meteoric rise the party lost the next assembly elections. It also suffered two major setbacks with the expulsion of Narayan Rane and resignation of his nephew Raj Thackeray from the party.

Mr Rane was chosen by Mr Thackeray in place of Manohar Joshi as the chief minister. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the assembly after the party lost power. However, the internal bickering in the party came to the fore when Mr Thackeray's son Uddhav was appointed as the Executive President. There were frequent arguments between Uddhav and Mr Rane over various issues, which led to his ouster from the party.

Similarly, unhappy with his cousin Uddhav Thackeray's style of functioning, Raj too resigned from the Sena and formed his own outfit Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

Interestingly, both Mr Rane and Raj used their sharp tongues to criticise Uddhav Thackeray and his style of functioning.

Last year, Mr Thackeray addressed the Dassera rally without Mr Rane, while this year Raj Thackeray will be absent from the rally.

Political observers feel the two defections are likely to have an impact on the monolithic Sena against the backdrop of the upcoming elections for the BMC due in February. It needs to be keenly observed how the senior Thackeray tackles the situation on this Dassera rally to maintain the Sena's stronghold in BMC.

UNI JM SSS AKJ HT1820