Mumbai: With Aaditya Thackeray having been firmly answerable for the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)‘s actions in Mumbai, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has determined to battle the Thackeray scion with its personal next-generation chief — Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s son, Shrikant.
Shrikant is helming the get together’s outreach programme with its shakhas, the Shakha Sampark Abhiyan. Shakhas are the Shiv Sena’s ground-level administrative unit and its first level of contact with folks. Over the previous week, Shrikant has been visiting shakhas, interacting with get together employees and the native inhabitants and listening to out their grievances, Shiv Sena employees instructed ThePrint.
Shrikant, an MP from Maharashtra’s Kalyan, has additionally been assembly bureaucrats in Mumbai, taking on a number of the grievances he hears on the shakha visits and different native points in Mumbai — similar to redevelopment of koliwadas (fishing villages) and beautification of components of town, amongst others.
Talking to ThePrint, the Shinde scion mentioned, “I’m simply attempting to grasp what issues get together employees are dealing with, attempting to attach with them, the native points that folks round these shakhas have. And I don’t simply take heed to them, I’m additionally instantly following up on these points with the involved authorities to get them resolved.”
He added: “I don’t wish to make comparisons with anybody”, referring to his former colleague Aaditya Thackeray’s work in Mumbai. “I can solely say we’re not large leaders whose faces you will note on billboards. We’re in impact get together employees on the bottom.”
ThePrint reached Shiv Sena (UBT) MP and spokesperson Arvind Sawant on name and textual content message for remark, however acquired no response until the time of publication of this report. The copy can be up to date as soon as a response is acquired.
In June final yr, Eknath Shinde had led a insurrection of Shiv Sena MLAs to trigger a break up within the get together and topple the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) authorities, comprising the Thackeray-led Sena, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Get together (NCP). Shinde then fashioned his personal authorities with the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP), taking up the reins as CM.
For Shinde, who had dealt with the affairs of the undivided Shiv Sena in Mumbai’s satellite tv for pc city of Thane and its surrounding areas, Mumbai has been a weak hyperlink. His son Shrikant too has not extensively labored the bottom in Mumbai earlier than.
The focussed effort at increasing the get together’s presence in Mumbai and projecting Shrikant Shinde because the get together’s face within the metropolis comes forward of polls to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Company (BMC), anticipated to be held anytime this yr or early subsequent yr. The Mumbai civic physique has been the bastion of the undivided Shiv Sena for 25 years.
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The Shakha Sampark Abhiyan
For many years, the undivided Shiv Sena ran an nearly parallel administrative system by means of its shakhas. After the break up, CM Shinde was confronted with the problem of establishing his personal shakhas with the present community of those items in Mumbai being largely loyal to the Thackeray household.
Of the 40 Sena MLAs within the Shinde camp, solely 5 are from Mumbai, and only a handful of the undivided Shiv Sena’s Mumbai corporators have shifted their allegiance to Shinde.
On this backdrop, the Shakha Sampark Abhiyan can be aimed toward projecting how the Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s shakhas, and never those beneath Thackeray, are carrying the legacy of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray ahead.
The get together, final week, launched a teaser of the Shakha Sampark Abhiyan on its social media handles, speaking about Bal Thackeray having began the legacy of shakhas because the centres of the get together’s public welfare programmes and the way Eknath Shinde is taking the idea ahead.
Sheetal Mhatre, a senior chief from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, instructed ThePrint that within the one yr for the reason that break up, her get together has been in a position to arrange a couple of hundred shakhas throughout Mumbai, with there being at the very least two or extra shakhas in a lot of the metropolis’s 36 meeting constituencies.
“Now we have appointed shakha pramukhs (heads of the shakhas) all over the place and total crammed about 80 per cent of the executive positions throughout all of the hundred shakhas,” she mentioned.
Compared, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has one shakha in every of the 227 councillor wards in Mumbai.
Shrikant’s Mumbai push
Based on the get together, for the reason that starting of June, Shrikant has visited about 10 to 12 of his get together’s shakhas in Mumbai, throughout areas similar to Byculla, Bandra, Ghatkopar, Dahisar, Mahim and Prabhadevi.
“Shrikant Shinde ji spends about 1-1.5 hours at each shakha he visits, interacts with the shakha and upa shakha (deputy) pramukhs. He has been taking inventory of what sort of work the shakhas are doing, provides his suggestions on what wants enchancment. This sends a powerful message to all of the karyakartas that the senior management is straight coming to fulfill them, listening to them,” Vijay Lipare, the Shinde-led Sena’s Vidhan Sabha sanghatak (administrator) in Byculla, instructed ThePrint.
He added: “It’s true that Shrikant ji hasn’t labored in Mumbai previous to this, however he brings a variety of administrative acumen being an skilled MP. And this type of a programme additionally helps popularise his management within the metropolis.”
Following the break up within the Shiv Sena, Aaditya Thackeray had taken up an analogous shakha outreach marketing campaign, personally visiting these small administrative items throughout town and interacting with get together employees.
Shrikant has additionally been having conferences with bureaucrats on numerous points associated to Mumbai, simply the way in which Aaditya would maintain conferences when he was a state cupboard minister within the earlier MVA authorities.
In April, Shrikant met BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal and senior civic officers to debate pending works within the Marine Drive and Fort areas, aimed toward defending the heritage worth of those areas and upgrading infrastructure to advertise tourism.
On Tuesday, Shrikant held one other assembly with Chahal and senior civic officers. He instructed ThePrint this assembly was primarily to debate points that he had come throughout throughout his shakha visits to date.
“I took up points like repairs in transit camps of the slum rehabilitation authority, a correct coverage with the state authorities for folks residing in transit lodging for years, growth of koliwadas. There isn’t a level in merely listening to folks’s grievances and never performing on them,” he added.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Additionally learn: How Uddhav is rebuilding his Sena for 2024 after Shinde’s defection blow
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