Two Shiv Senas, two Dusshera events: How high are stakes for Uddhav and Shinde?

Shivaji Park, a ground where Shiv Sainiks exhibit their show of strength every year, remains Uddhav Thackeray's stronghold of legacy. But Maharashtra's Deputy CM Eknath Shinde has the numbers, the official party name, and the government behind him. As the rival Senas hold their Dussehra rallies at different venues today, the question is who can turn their advantages into political support.

In Short

• Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena holds Dusshera event in Mumbai's Shivaji Park
• Eknath Shinde's rally is at Goregaon NESCO complex; he plans for relief measures
• Turnout at both rallies will determine who holds the Sen'a organisational strength

Today, Mumbai is set to host two Dussehra rallies by the rival Shiv Sena factions. Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) will return to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Park in Dadar, the ground long known to party workers as Shivteerth. Maharashtra Deputy CM Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, meanwhile, will gather at the NESCO Center and Bombay Exhibition Centre in Goregaon. The choice of venues, four years after the party's split, says as much about the organisational reality of the factions as it does about legacy.

Shivaji Park has been central to the Shiv Sena since its founding. Bal Thackeray held the party's first public meeting there on October 30, 1966, four months after launching the organisation. The ground, already linked to the historic Samyukta Maharashtra movement, became the annual stage from which the Sena set its political line.

Bal Thackeray or Bala Saheb as he was popularly known, addressed the Shiv Sainiks and the gathering almost every year until his death in 2012. His son, Uddhav Thackeray, took over the tradition the following year. Party workers and political observers have long treated the venue as inseparable from the Sena's identity in Mumbai.

After the 2022 split, both Uddhav and Shinde factions initially competed for the ground. In 2022, the dispute went to court; the Bombay High Court allowed the Uddhav faction to hold its rally at Shivaji Park, while Shinde's group shifted to the MMRDA grounds in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC). In subsequent years, the Shinde faction stopped applying for Shivaji Park.

This year, too, Shinde's faction did not seek the venue. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) granted permission to the UBT faction as the sole applicant, reported The Times of India.

The traditional ground, then, remains with the Thackeray faction, while the ruling faction has moved its annual rally outside the island city.

But viewed from a wider lens, Shinde holds the advantage in legislative strength and official party recognition. In the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election, Shinde's faction won 57 seats in the 288-member Assembly, compared with 20 for Uddhav's Shiv Sena (UBT).

Shinde, who earlier served as the Maharashtra CM from 2022 to 2024, is now the Deputy CM in the Mahayuti government and continues to lead the faction recognised by the Election Commission of India as the official Shiv Sena.

Despite the dominance of the Shinde Sena, the faction has accepted a different venue for the two Senas' most important annual event.

Political analysts note that the contest over Shivaji Park has cooled precisely because the larger institutional questions have been settled in Shinde's favour.

A Mumbai-based political analyst and veteran journalist who has tracked Maharashtra politics for over three decades told India Today Digital, "Shinde's move does not have anything to do with the 'bigger institutional battles' now, because they have already been settled in his favour. It was a deliberate decision to go to another venue for the Dussehra rally this year."

The political analyst, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, also revealed why Shinde was actively fighting to hold the Dussehra event at Shivaji Park for the first time since the split between the two parties.

"In the first year after the Sena split in 2022, Shinde's priorities were different. He wanted visibility, and the Dussehra rally was one of the most important events for the party. Later, Shinde did not even claim Shiv Sena Bhavan, bank deposits, other party properties or its wealth."

UDDHAV SEEKS TO LINK DUSSEHRA RALLY TO PROTESTS

Uddhav Thackeray has used recent months to stay visible on issues beyond party organisation. He has publicly backed protests by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) against alleged irregularities in NEET examination processes, and the call for CEC Gyanesh Kumar's resignation over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. He appeared at related gatherings and urged broader Opposition support, and on Saturday, he declared, "Yes, we are fighting for a regime change in the country."

Uddhav's political opponents and critics have called his actions of reaching out to the CJP himself as an act of trying to stay in the fray, when his party is facing an existential crisis in the state and even in the Sena stronghold Mumbai.

Notably, the UBT's Dussehra messaging this year also centres on protection of the Constitution, linking the rally to those protests.

The framing allows the Uddhav-led party to present itself as still relevant to younger and urban constituencies even while its legislative numbers remain limited.

The rally will also be a test of the party's ability to mobilise supporters.

Voices on social media have contrasted the packed Shivaji Park gatherings during Bal Thackeray's times, when the ground would fill up by afternoon, with the empty chairs seen at some rallies under Uddhav, particularly after the 2022 split.

The turnout this time will offer a measure of the UBT's organisational strength and its ability to retain its traditional support base. For the party, which is seeking to regain political ground in Maharashtra, the rally is an opportunity to demonstrate its continued relevance among younger and urban voters and signal its capacity to mount a comeback alongside its INDIA bloc allies.

SHINDE SENA'S DUSSEHRA RALLY FOCUSSES ON RURAL DISTRESS

Deputy CM Eknath Shinde's camp, on the other hand, has chosen a different emphasis for this year's Dussehra show of strength. Its rally at NESCO complex, which lies in the northern suburb of Goregaon, is dedicated to drought-affected farmers of Maharashtra.

The Shiv Sena has announced plans for relief measures, including distribution of bicycles, sewing machines and grocery kits, and a programme to mobilise workers for on-ground assistance. The focus on rural distress positions the ruling faction as connected to issues outside just Mumbai's island city, which is consistent with its stronger performance in many parts of the state in 2024 too.

But the shift away from Shivaji Park does not mean the ground has lost its symbolic weight.

For many long-time Shiv Sainiks, the open maidan in Dadar continues to represent continuity with Bal Thackeray's era.

Holding the rally there allows the UBT faction to claim the emotional centre of the party's history, especially because the real contest over the Sena's institutional identity has already been decided in the courts and in the legislature.

Tomorrow's twin events will therefore measure two different kinds of strength in Mumbai.

At Shivaji Park, the test is whether the Uddhav faction can still draw a large, emotionally charged crowd to the ground that defined the party for decades.

The NESCO rally will test whether Shinde's Sena can translate its legislative strength and access to government resources into a political presence across Maharashtra, where drought-hit regions are struggling for every drop of water.

- Ends