Mumbai A fresh round of poaching has begun between the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the Eknath Shinde faction and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the run up to the Dussehra rallies to be held by the rival camps.
This shifting of loyalties may intensify in the days to come with speculations that some elected representatives from the Shiv Sena may join the Shinde faction during the Dussehra rally to be held by them on October 5 at the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) grounds.
On Saturday, which was a day after Thackeray scored a victory of sorts as the Bombay High Court (HC) allowed the Shiv Sena to use the Shivaji Park grounds for the Dussehra rally, the Shiv Sena inducted former corporator Jyotsna Dighe, who joined the party in presence of Thackeray and former minister Anil Parab.
Not to be undone, Shinde inducted Vaibhav Sankhe, the Palghar district president of the Shiv Sena.
Dighe is a former Shiv Sena corporator from Andheri West, who followed former chief minister and incumbent union minister Narayan Rane to the Congress and later, the BJP. She was the vice president of the BJP city unit.
Sankhe’s switch to the Shinde faction from the Shiv Sena is another setback for the party as it comes days after former MLAs Amit Ghoda and Vilas Tare jumped ship to the BJP, weakening it further in Palghar district, where Shinde had established near-total sway in the Sena’s erstwhile pockets.
The Shiv Sena and the rival Shinde faction were locked in a confrontation over getting the Shivaji Park for their rallies on the day that marks the end of Navratri festivities. While denying permissions to both camps, the BMC had claimed that this was based on the opinion of the police that granting permission to either group ran the risk of affecting the law-and-order situation. However, Shinde has already secured the BKC ground for his public meeting.